From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordLumen and lux both denote light in this sequence; their local physical or spiritual reference matters more than a rigid two-word system.
- In the Platonic TheologyThe visual exercise starts with light spreading instantaneously without shattering or being stained by bodies.
- In this editionIntelligibilem and intelligentem in VI.2.26 mean respectively available to intellect and itself understanding.
- A place to readLight’s instantaneous, uninjuring penetration introduces the visual route.
Meaning
Lumen and lux both denote light in this sequence; their local physical or spiritual reference matters more than a rigid two-word system. Fulgor is the sun’s radiance, splendor its visible manifestation mixed with vapours. Spiritus can here name a spiritual mode of being; it is not invariably the physiological spirits found elsewhere.
Use in the book
The visual exercise starts with light spreading instantaneously without shattering or being stained by bodies. On Ficino’s premises this is something nonbodily seen with bodily eyes. He challenges the move from invisibility to nonexistence: the most excellent elemental and celestial spheres are not all directly visible. The sun would still exist even unseen by owls, and our visible splendor points to a purer radiance. The light of stars is similarly taken as an image of spiritual light in celestial souls.
Next Ficino imagines light separated from all matter, increasingly active and, conditionally, most alive “if it is ever to live.” It would sense “so to speak,” because other beings sense through its rays, yet evade earthly sight both through subtlety and through excess intelligible brightness. These are analogical and historical-philosophical claims about illumination, not modern optics. The repeated qualifications and the chapter’s eventual “prelude” prevent a reductive identification of soul with visible radiation. Seeing a likeness can provide access to a source without making source and likeness numerically the same.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
Intelligibilem and intelligentem in VI.2.26 mean respectively available to intellect and itself understanding. The facing English’s “light of spirits” must be read with Ficino’s vocabulary of bodily vehicles and physiological mediation, not generalized into an identity of spirit and rational soul.
coniicere; coniectari
coniicere; coniectari. Printed forms: coniectamur; coniicimus.
To infer or conjecture from an effect or image. The seen splendor indicates unseen radiance, and stellar light similarly suggests spiritual light in celestial souls. References: VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
facultas; capacitas
facultas; capacitas. Printed forms: capacitatem; facultatem.
Capacity or operative ability, including a recipient’s limit. Earthly sight cannot receive excess intelligible radiance, while living bodies acquire the ability to act through soul’s presence. References: VI.2.23, VI.12.8, VI.12.20. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
frangere; inficere
frangere; inficere. Printed forms: frangit; inficitur.
To shatter and to be stained or affected by admixture. Light is said to penetrate bodies without either breaking them or receiving contamination. References: VI.2.22. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
fulgor; splendor
fulgor; splendor. Printed forms: fulgor; splendor; splendore.
Radiance and its visible splendor. Ficino distinguishes the sun’s own light from the vapor-mixed manifestation through which we infer its source. References: VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
intelligibilis; intelligens
intelligibilis; intelligens. Printed forms: intelligentem; intelligibilem.
Intelligible, available to intellect; intelligent, itself understanding. Both predicates describe the imagined invisible light, and neither should be used as a substitute for the other. References: VI.2.26. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
lucere; rutilare
lucere; rutilare. Printed forms: lucere; rutilabit; rutilare.
To shine or glow brilliantly. Light’s activity is identified with shining and imagined as intensified through separation from dense matter. References: VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
lumen; lux
lumen; lux. Printed forms: luce; lucem; lucis; lumen; lumine; luminis; luminum; lux.
Light, ranging from visible illumination to analogical intelligible source. The prelude follows rays, vapor-mixed appearance, spiritual source and intelligent light; no invariant distinction between the two Latin nouns replaces attention to those referents. References: VI.2.9, VI.2.15, VI.2.22, VI.2.23, VI.2.26. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
lumen; spiritus
lumen; spiritus. Printed forms: lumen; spiritale; spiritum.
Light and spiritual reality in the visual exercise. The rhetoric invites readers to recognize a nonbodily mode through light’s supposedly instantaneous and harmless presence. References: VI.2.22. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
momentum
momentum. Printed forms: momento.
An instant without a bodily interval of traversal. Ficino uses the instantaneous diffusion of light as part of the case for its noncorporeal mode. References: VI.2.22. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
perspicere; prospicere; pervidere
perspicere; prospicere; pervidere. Printed forms: perspicere; perspiciet; pervidere; prospicit; prospicitur.
To discern, look forth or see through an obscuring condition. The edition retains distinct printed verbs, including corrected pervidere in the Avicennian argument and prospicitur in the unseen-light passage. References: VI.2.4, VI.2.6, VI.2.12, VI.2.13, VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
secernere
secernere. Printed forms: Secernite.
To separate or distinguish away. The imperative advances a conceptual light exercise, not a physical operation for extracting an immortal soul. References: VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
sentire; sentiri
sentire; sentiri. Printed forms: sentientem; Sentiet; sentietur.
To sense and to be sensed. A light construed as source of sensation need not itself be a sensible object; the distinction is central to the soul/flame comparison. References: VI.2.23, VI.2.26. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.
sol
sol. Printed forms: Sol; sol; sole; solem; soli; solis.
The sun, a natural agent and source of light in these examples. Solar rays thin water, solar formation supplies the fire example, and inseparable light illustrates a proper attendant. References: V.4.1, V.8.2, V.9.1, V.14.6. See Art and elemental transformation.
The sun, a physical light-source or an intelligible analogue according to the passage. Solis in the ray and radiance examples belongs to sun, whereas auribus solis means ears alone; identical printed forms require syntactic disambiguation. References: VI.2.7, VI.2.15, VI.2.16, VI.2.21, VI.2.23. See Light, spirit and the unseen source.