Imagination and deceptive clothing · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordPhantasia is imagination, the power of presenting images.
In the Platonic TheologyWhen the mind conceives simple duration, imagination immediately clothes it in manifold flux.
In this editionThe edition’s “illusions,” “clothes,” and “shrouded” are source-grounded metaphors.
A place to readImagination clothes stable duration in temporal flux

Meaning

Phantasia is imagination, the power of presenting images. Induere means clothing or putting on; involutus means wrapped or enfolded. Praestigiae are illusions or deceptive appearances. Clamare and reclamare personify the competing claims of imagination and reason.

Use in the book

When the mind conceives simple duration, imagination immediately clothes it in manifold flux. What is divine eternity is consequently mistaken for time. The clothing image makes the mistake intelligible without saying the original intellectual object never appeared: God presents himself, but wrapped in time.

The same pattern governs space. A pure, unlimited capacity is replaced by lines of length, breadth, and depth, or by void. Imagination then treats divine fullness as an object placed inside other things. Reason protests against reducing nature to the bodily fabric. This is a local criticism of imagination’s inappropriate substitution, not a verdict that imagination is always deceptive. II.9.16 gives it a constructive role gathering what the separate senses receive, while intellect grasps both particulars and universal principles more clearly.

Places to read

II.5.2, II.5.3Imagination clothes stable duration in temporal flux
II.6.12, II.6.13The substitution of lines and void turns fullness into an imagined occupant
II.9.16Imagination also integrates the separate contributions of the senses

Translation in this edition

The edition’s “illusions,” “clothes,” and “shrouded” are source-grounded metaphors. “Reason protests” translates the personifying reclamat, rather than introducing a new speaker in a dramatic dialogue.

clamare / reclamare / persuadere

clamare / reclamare / persuadere. Printed forms: clamat; persuadet; reclamat.

To cry out, protest in reply, or persuade. Reason and imagination are personified as advancing conflicting accounts of what everywhere means. References: II.6.13. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.

dubitare / diffidere / difficile

dubitare / diffidere / difficile. Printed forms: Difficile; Difficilius; diffidit; dubio; dubitare.

To doubt, mistrust, or find difficult; dubio qualifies certainty. Difficulty locating an uncontained God differs from doubt caused by imagination’s bodily model of presence. References: II.1.3, II.5.4, II.6.8, II.6.13. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.

fallere / praestigiae / confundere

fallere / praestigiae / confundere. Printed forms: confundit; fallit; Fallit; praestigiis.

To deceive or confuse; illusion. The error lies in substituting a spatial or temporal image for the intellectual object initially conceived. References: II.5.2, II.6.13. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.

inane

inane. Printed forms: inane.

Void or empty space. Imagination mistakes divine light for dimensional extension or void; neither image captures the intended pure fullness. References: II.6.13. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.

induere / involvere

induere / involvere. Printed forms: induit; involutus.

To clothe or wrap. Imagination clothes simple duration in temporal flux, so God is presented as though wrapped in time. References: II.5.2, II.5.3. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.

phantasia

phantasia. Printed forms: phantasia; Phantasia.

Imagination, a power presenting and combining images. It misleads when replacing eternity with flux or fullness with extension, yet also gathers the senses’ contributions. References: II.5.2, II.6.13, II.9.16. See Imagination and deceptive clothing.