Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordSimulacrum, imago and effigies name likenesses or representations.
In the Platonic TheologyThe opening image contains Plato's stature, forehead, shoulders, colouring, eyes, brow, nose, mouth and voice.
In this editionThe apparatus reports deletion of introspicit after auguratur in accordance with the 1482 correction list.
A place to readThe portrait distinguishes sensory features, imaginative collection, recognition and evaluative intention.

Meaning

Simulacrum, imago and effigies name likenesses or representations. Intentio here names a significant content discerned in connection with an image, such as this man's goodness or friendship; it does not mean a future plan. Augurari and somniare mark conjectural or incomplete apprehension rather than full knowledge.

Use in the book

The opening image contains Plato's stature, forehead, shoulders, colouring, eyes, brow, nose, mouth and voice. These details explain what the lower faculties can supply. Imagination assembles the picture but does not know whom it depicts or what sort of person he is. Phantasy makes the recognition and evaluative judgments. The contrast turns on the move from visible or audible features to what is being recognized through them.

Ficino does not simply grant phantasy knowledge of substance. “Some” attribute to it a sense of substance, beauty, goodness and friendship; the Platonists nevertheless deny that it genuinely knows substance, because it does not recognize the account of substance. It at least divines that the approaching figure is a man and Plato. Its relation to incorporeals is described as a kind of dreaming. The double qualification of the intentions as incorporeal “in a manner” matters: phantasy neither recognizes their incorporeality nor frees them from this person's circumstances.

The vocabulary of painting, gathering, discerning, pronouncing and dreaming makes a fine-grained cognitive argument. The images do real work, but their possession alone does not constitute intellectual understanding. Conversely, calling an image immaterial in the limited sense of receiving no original bodily matter does not establish that its cognitive operation is independent of a bodily organ.

Places to read

VIII.1.1The portrait distinguishes sensory features, imaginative collection, recognition and evaluative intention.
VIII.1.2Phantasy depicts Plato under the same place-and-time conditions as the embodied individual.

Translation in this edition

The apparatus reports deletion of introspicit after auguratur in accordance with the 1482 correction list. “Intention” is retained technically, and the repeated qualifications must remain visible. Disciplina in the list concerns the learning or pupil relationship, not merely external discipline.

amicitia / disciplina

amicitia / disciplina. Printed forms: amicitia; amicitiae; disciplina; discipuli; discipulum.

Friendship and the learning or pupil relation that recognition adds to a sensory portrait. These relations are not visible colours or shapes; they mark phantasy's partial reach beyond sensation while remaining particularized. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

augurari / suspicari / somniare

augurari / suspicari / somniare. Printed forms: auguratur; somniare; somniaret; suspicatur.

Conjecturing, surmising or dreaming rather than possessing a clear account. These verbs qualify phantasy's relation to substance and incorporeal predicates; the drunken dream later supplies a polemical reductio. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.3.4. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

designare / discernere

designare / discernere. Printed forms: designaret; discernere; discernit.

Indicating whom an image represents, or discriminating objects and relations. The first requires recognitive phantasy beyond imaginative collection; later discrimination of whole and parts tests intellectual adequacy. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.4.3, VIII.13.2. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

intentio

intentio. Printed forms: intentio; intentionem; intentionem mentis; intentiones; intentionum.

Directed attention, distinct from the overarching plan. Its relation to present work and its withdrawal from bodily senses illustrate the mind's different orientations. References: V.15.5, V.15.9. See Time, memory and expectation.

A meaningful particular content discerned through an image, such as this person's goodness or friendship. It is called incorporeal only in a qualified manner at the phantasy stage, which does not yet recognize that status. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2, VIII.1.4. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

phantasia

phantasia. Printed forms: phantasia; Phantasia; phantasiae; phantasiam.

Imagination, identified here with internal sense. Its material consists of bodily figures and qualities received through sense, explaining why it cannot alone define incorporeal soul. References: VI.2.2. See Habit, purification and intellectual experiment.

Imagination as an attending and judging sensory power. It judges bodily events and shares distress; its sorrow or joy can affect the same soul’s nourishment. References: VII.6.1, VII.6.2, VII.9.2. See Sensation as attentive activity.

Particularizing recognition and judgment operating upon an imagined presentation. It recognizes Plato as this good or beautiful friend but remains bound to his singular circumstances and does not recognize its intentions as incorporeal. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2, VIII.1.4, VIII.1.5. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

procerus / frons / humerus / glaucus / aquilinus

procerus / frons / humerus / glaucus / aquilinus. Printed forms: aquilino; fronte; glaucis; humeris; ore; procero; supercilio; voce.

The concrete visual and auditory attributes gathered in Plato's recognizable portrait. Tall body, broad forehead and shoulders, grey eyes, brow, aquiline nose, small mouth and pleasant voice illustrate the sensory ingredients of the composite image. References: VIII.1.1. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

simulacrum / imago / effigies

simulacrum / imago / effigies. Printed forms: effigiem; effigies; imagines; imago; simulacro; simulacrorum; simulacrum.

A likeness or presented image, distinguishable from the material object and from its intellectual account. Imagination gathers Plato's portrait, while phantasy identifies whose image it is and intellect apprehends common nature. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.4, VIII.1.5. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.

superficies / pictura

superficies / pictura. Printed forms: exterioremque; picturam; superficiem.

The surface and external picture available to imagination. The vocabulary emphasizes the difference between assembling sensible appearance and knowing what the represented thing is. References: VIII.1.1. See Images, intentions, and conjecturing substance.