Mutual knowledge of minds and the celestial spheres · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe containing and embracing vocabulary describes mutual intellectual apprehension.
In the Platonic TheologySaturn's sphere contains Jupiter's in the cosmological model assumed here, while Jupiter's does not contain Saturn's. A bodily container must be larger than its contained object and cannot at the same time be smaller than that very object.
In this editionThe apparatus emphasizes a single sustained embracing image.
A place to readCelestial containment contrasts with mutual knowing; the conclusion preserves the future-only alternative.

Meaning

The containing and embracing vocabulary describes mutual intellectual apprehension. The direct act is life, while the reflexive act is cognition. These terms express an explanatory order within mind rather than two spatial trajectories.

Use in the book

Saturn's sphere contains Jupiter's in the cosmological model assumed here, while Jupiter's does not contain Saturn's. A bodily container must be larger than its contained object and cannot at the same time be smaller than that very object. Minds, however, can consider one another reciprocally: mine knows yours and yours mine. Each therefore “contains” what contains it through a mode that is not quantitative enclosure.

The argument extends to mind's common nature. Any mind, when it attends, can consider the species of all minds. Ficino does not claim that it thereby reads every private thought or knows every detail of every actual person. The crucial content is the common intellectual nature.

A further immortality inference says that an individual substance equal to its enduring species should endure. The mind makes itself commensurate with that species through reflexive knowing; its prior direct act, life, must therefore have the corresponding capacity. Ficino gives an explicit alternative: either it has always existed and always will, or at least it will exist forever. The passage must not be cited as an unqualified proof of the soul's pre-existence.

Places to read

VIII.9.1Celestial containment contrasts with mutual knowing; the conclusion preserves the future-only alternative.

Translation in this edition

The apparatus emphasizes a single sustained embracing image. The qualifiers si contingat and si animadvertat retain the conditions of occasion and attention. “Any mind can consider another” is not unrestricted telepathic access.

amplexus / complecti / capere

amplexus / complecti / capere. Printed forms: amplectitur; amplexibus; capiendo; capiunt; complectuntur.

Embracing and receiving, extended to mutual intellectual apprehension. Each mind can consider another and the shared nature of minds without being a larger bodily container. References: VIII.9.1. See Mutual knowledge of minds and the celestial spheres.

continere

continere. Printed forms: contineantur; continere; contineri; continet; continetur.

Containing or holding, quantitatively in bodies but intellectually or causally in other contexts. Propositions contain implications, minds mutually contain known natures, and bodies enclose smaller bodies; the repeated verb does not establish one uniform spatial relation. References: VIII.3.7, VIII.4.7, VIII.4.8, VIII.6.1, VIII.9.1, VIII.15.2. See Mutual knowledge of minds and the celestial spheres.

invicem / vicissim

invicem / vicissim. Printed forms: invicem; Vicissim; vicissim.

Reciprocally or in turn, marking a two-way relation. Minds know one another and virtues imply one another; the reciprocity contrasts with the one-way quantitative containment of celestial spheres. References: VIII.1.3, VIII.1.5, VIII.2.1, VIII.3.7, VIII.4.2, VIII.4.3, VIII.4.5, VIII.9.1, VIII.12.1, VIII.14.1, VIII.16.2. See Mutual knowledge of minds and the celestial spheres.

Saturnus / Iuppiter / sphaera

Saturnus / Iuppiter / sphaera. Printed forms: Iovis; Saturni; sphaera; sphaeram.

Saturn, Jupiter and their spheres in the inherited cosmological containment model. Saturn's sphere contains Jupiter's, not reciprocally; this one-way bodily relation contrasts with minds mutually knowing each other. References: VIII.9.1. See Mutual knowledge of minds and the celestial spheres.