Innate forms and the stimulus of images · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordExcitation by an image is a prompting, while promere is bringing forth what lies concealed.
In the Platonic TheologyAccording to the Platonists as Ficino reports them, bodily images awaken the mind to bring forms out of its own recesses into light.
In this editionUt Platonici opinantur introduces the self-reception account.
A place to readThe phantastic image prompts the conception to which intellect later returns.

Meaning

Excitation by an image is a prompting, while promere is bringing forth what lies concealed. Adita evokes inner recesses. The naturally implanted Idea is presented as a source of conception; its relation to sensory stimulation is not simple copying.

Use in the book

According to the Platonists as Ficino reports them, bodily images awaken the mind to bring forms out of its own recesses into light. The object of sensory representation occasions the activity, but the intellectual form's universal power is not explained as a material imprint transported unchanged into a storehouse.

Human nature in Plato or Socrates is restricted to that person's embodiment. The nature conceived under one definition applies to all humans. Ficino interprets this wider adequacy as greater formal perfection and truth. The mental notion includes what is necessary to the account and excludes superfluous circumstances. “Purity” therefore means the removal of accidental restrictions and admixtures from the intelligible account, not a judgment that an actual person is disposable or unreal.

This passage belongs with the opening account in which an image prompts universal conception, but its attribution must remain visible. It is a Platonic explanation of the source of the form. Ficino's subsequent proof uses the claim that mind receives forms truly without becoming a body of their kind; it does not require the reader to treat all imaginative products as innate truths.

Places to read

VIII.1.5The phantastic image prompts the conception to which intellect later returns.
VIII.13.1Image-induced awakening, inward forms and necessary-versus-superfluous content explain the superiority of intellectual reception.

Translation in this edition

Ut Platonici opinantur introduces the self-reception account. The paired pura integritate / integra puritate deliberately combines completeness with freedom from admixture. Neither phrase means sheer absence of content.

alienus / extraneus

alienus / extraneus. Printed forms: aliena; alienis; extraneis.

What is foreign, another's or externally added, relative to the nature under discussion. Bodily reception risks replacement or admixture by foreign qualities; the intellectual account can exclude accidental external conditions without losing essential content. References: VIII.7.1, VIII.12.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.15.1, VIII.15.3. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

excitare / promere / adita

excitare / promere / adita. Printed forms: aditis; excitata; latent; promit.

Awakening, bringing forth and the hidden inner recesses of mind. Bodily images prompt mind to bring out latent forms, according to the expressly attributed Platonic explanation. References: VIII.13.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

infectio / puritas

infectio / puritas. Printed forms: infectionem; infectis; puritate; puritatem.

Taint or admixture and purity, applied to material restriction and intelligible release. Mind's ability to restore an account's purity is used to argue that its own intellectual nature stands beyond the relevant admixture. References: VIII.5.2, VIII.13.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

integritas / puritas / supervacuum

integritas / puritas / supervacuum. Printed forms: integritate; necessaria; puritate; supervacua.

Completeness, purity, necessities and superfluities in the account of an intelligible form. A notion is more adequate when it retains essential content while setting aside material admixture and accidental restrictions. References: VIII.13.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

latere / lucere

latere / lucere. Printed forms: latent; latet; Latet; lucent; lucet.

Lying concealed and shining forth, images of implicit and explicit intelligible content. A discipline's implications lie within propositions, while principles and latent forms become evident to reflective intellect. References: VIII.3.5, VIII.3.7, VIII.4.12, VIII.13.1, VIII.15.2, VIII.16.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

naturaliter insitus

naturaliter insitus. Printed forms: naturaliter insita.

Naturally implanted, describing the Idea from which a mental notion is produced. The account includes what is necessary and excludes superfluous circumstances; it is not merely a sensory copy. References: VIII.13.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.

ut quidam putant / ut Platonici opinantur

ut quidam putant / ut Platonici opinantur. Printed forms: Platonici tamen; ut Platonici opinantur; ut quidam putant.

As some think, as Platonists think, and yet the Platonists: attribution and contrast markers. The opening substance claim is not universally endorsed, and latent-form self-reception is expressly attached to a Platonic explanation. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.13.1. See Innate forms and the stimulus of images.