Great year · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordMagnus ac mundanus annus is the great or cosmic year; mundi senium the world’s old age, and mundi restitutio its restoration.
In the Platonic TheologyIV.2.12 explains the great year through the finite number of a cosmic soul's seminal contents and its continued activity.
In this editionThe proposed period is thirty-six thousand solar years, attributed to the Platonists.
A place to readA finite stock of seeds and continued psychic activity motivate either rest or recurring generation.

Meaning

Magnus ac mundanus annus is the great or cosmic year; mundi senium the world’s old age, and mundi restitutio its restoration. The terms name a cosmological return, not an ordinary solar year.

Use in the book

IV.2.12 explains the great year through the finite number of a cosmic soul's seminal contents and its continued activity. Having passed through all seeds, the soul must either rest, “as it seems to us,” or traverse them again and reweave the sequence of generation. Ficino reports a cycle of thirty-six thousand solar years as the Platonists' period for the universal circuit. He associates its end with Mercury's world-old-age and Plato's world-restoration, and attributes to Zoroaster and followers an argument for bodily resurrection based on the return of the same causes and effects. These attributions are part of the supplied primary text; the apparatus does not independently establish their ancient provenance. The passage preserves alternatives between rest and renewed traversal. Its numerical period is part of the attributed cosmological theory, not a measured astronomical result.

Further passage references. IV.2.12

Places to read

IV.2.12A finite stock of seeds and continued psychic activity motivate either rest or recurring generation.
IV.2.12The period and names for its ending are expressly assigned to the Platonists, Mercury and Plato.

Translation in this edition

The proposed period is thirty-six thousand solar years, attributed to the Platonists. Preserve vel... vel and ut nobis videtur: rest and renewed traversal are alternatives in the passage. The resurrection inference is reported as Zoroaster’s and followers’ reasoning, not independently proven here.

senium / restitutio mundi

senium / restitutio mundi. Printed forms: mundi restitutionem; senium.

Old age; restoration of the world. Mercury and Plato receive different names for the end of the reported cosmic year; their labels do not collapse into one literal mechanism. References: IV.2.12. See Great year.

Mercury Trismegistus; Hermes (authorities and cited works)

Mercury Trismegistus; Hermes. Cited on formless matter, divine will, providence, and the world's old age. The Hermetic theologians frame the inquiry into grades of rational soul. Distinguish this authority from Mercury as planet or cosmic divine name. I.3.19; II.11.38; II.13.24; IV.1.1; IV.2.12. See Matter; Will; Hermetic theologians and the Magi; Great year.

Zoroaster (authorities and cited works)

Zoroaster. A recurrent ancient theological authority for intellectual rulers, the intelligible beyond mind, divine production and persuasion, cosmic principles, fate, recurrence, and the ethereal garment. Ficino's claims about this authority and the origin of ancient wisdom remain attributions within the work. I.5.19; I.6.9; II.12.8–112 3 4; II.13.27; III.1.12; IV.2.2, IV.2.10–122 3, IV.2.27. See Hermetic theologians and the Magi; Fate; Great year; Ethereal garment.

Statesman; Politicus; book on kingship (authorities and cited works)

Statesman; Politicus; book on kingship. Appears in arguments about ends and providence, the fated desire moving heaven, cosmic restoration, and circular motion's proximity to stability. II.11.26; II.13.24; IV.2.2, IV.2.12, IV.2.22–232. See Fate; Great year; Circularity and return.