Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun

Use in the book

Wood receiving fire becomes hot and fiery. A remote mirror reflecting the flame does not. The mirror therefore supplies a possible objection to the rule that reception of a bodily form assimilates its recipient: an image appears without physical heating. Ficino responds by denying that the image is truly received in the mirror's body. He locates it instead in the spiritual light surrounding the surface.

The account then traces images to surrounding light rather than to bodies producing incorporeals, and light itself to the sun's soul rather than the solar globe. The Orphics and Heraclitus are named for the reciprocal description of light as visible soul and soul as invisible light. This attribution is part of Ficino's exposition; this contribution does not verify it as a literal quotation from an independently consulted ancient text.

The digression is recalled to its purpose: mind truly receives forms when it judges truly, whereas the mirror does not receive a material flame. The word “truly” therefore does not mean one unchanged mode of reception in every case. Mind's receiving is intellectual and can be more adequate than the restricted embodiment of a form in matter.

The physical explanation is historical natural philosophy. It should not be presented as current optics or used to infer that reflected light cannot heat a material surface under other conditions.

Places to read

1. VIII.13.1Burning wood, a remote mirror, spiritual light and the sun’s soul introduce the distinction between material and intellectual reception.

Translation in this edition

The reading text prints visibilis after effusa longius, an explicit contextual emendation against invisibilis reported in all three witnesses. The next clauses require visible manifestation, but the emendation remains the supplied editor's intervention, not an attested unanimous reading. The apparatus also reports tribuitur as the correction of attribuitur.

anima solis

anima solis. Printed forms: solis anima.

The soul of the sun in the cosmological account reported in this passage. Ficino traces spiritual light to the sun’s soul rather than to its bodily globe. Its inward invisible light is said to become visible when poured outward. This source-specific use is distinguished from the lexicon’s primary focus on rational human souls and from literal flame entering a mirror. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

lignum / flamma / flammula

lignum / flamma / flammula. Printed forms: Flamma; flamma; flammam; flammula; ligno; lignum.

Wood, flame and the diminutive flame-image reflected in a mirror. Real fire heats wood, while the remote reflection does not; the difference motivates Ficino's account of the image's spiritual medium. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

lumen / lux

lumen / lux. Printed forms: lucem; Lumen; lumen; lumine; lux.

Light, with inward invisible and outward visible modes distinguished in the solar-soul account. The sun's soul is said to produce outward light; images are traced to that spiritual medium rather than to bodies producing incorporeals. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

Orphici / Heraclitus

Orphici / Heraclitus. Printed forms: Heraclito; Orphicis.

The named authorities for light as visible soul and soul as invisible light. The attribution belongs to Ficino's report; the lexicon does not claim direct verification against separate ancient witnesses. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

reviviscere

reviviscere. Printed forms: reviviscunt.

Reviving or coming to life again. Ficino associates the world's revival through light with the account attributed to Orphics and Heraclitus; this is part of the soul-light comparison. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

speculum / distantia

speculum / distantia. Printed forms: distante; distantiam; speculi; speculo; speculum.

Mirror and distance as conditions distinguishing image from received material flame. The absence of heating is used to deny that the reflected flame is materially present in the mirror's body. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

spiritalis (optical)

spiritalis (optical). Printed forms: spiritali; spiritalis.

Spiritual in Ficino's account of light and the reflected image. The image is said to be borne in surrounding light rather than fixed in the material mirror; this is historical optics, not current physical explanation. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

visibilis / invisibilis

visibilis / invisibilis. Printed forms: conspicua; invisibilis; visibilis.

Visible, invisible and manifest, marking the light's inward source and outward disclosure. The reading visibilis after effusa longius is the supplied edition's explicit emendation against unanimous invisibilis, not a silently settled witness reading. References: VIII.13.1. See Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.

Heraclitus (authorities and interlocutors)

Heraclitus. A Greek dry-light maxim is interpreted through Ficino’s accompanying Latin gloss. Another appeal, with the Orphic writers, occurs in the visible/invisible-light discussion. The companion does not replace the printed quotation with another historical form of the fragment. References: VI.2.26, VIII.13.1. See Spark, globe and luminous vehicles; Mirror, light, and the soul of the sun.