Naming by cause · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordTribuere a name is to attribute it; appellationes are designations.
In the Platonic TheologyAfter arguing that God understands, Ficino qualifies the names intellect and intelligence.
In this editionThe supplied “in respect of cause rather than form” retains the explicit contrast.
A place to readCognition is affirmed as intelligence or something higher than intelligence

Meaning

Tribuere a name is to attribute it; appellationes are designations. Secundum causam means with respect to cause, in contrast here to per formam, according to the form itself. Proprie marks the application regarded as proper or strict.

Use in the book

After arguing that God understands, Ficino qualifies the names intellect and intelligence. Angel is properly mind; God is above the genus of minds. Calling God mind therefore need not classify him as another member of that genus. He is “mind of minds” and “light of lights,” the source of the perfection named.

The qualification neither retracts divine knowledge nor simply makes it ordinary creaturely cognition magnified. The next sentence says God understands in a mode above intelligence and proceeds to argue that he knows individual things. This lexical caution should govern every later use of “divine mind”: the author can use the name while denying that its mode is exactly the one found in an angel or human intellect.

Places to read

II.9.6Cognition is affirmed as intelligence or something higher than intelligence
II.9.12, II.9.13Causal naming is distinguished from the form proper to angelic mind

Translation in this edition

The supplied “in respect of cause rather than form” retains the explicit contrast. It should not be replaced by an unexplained modern theological label as though that label were Ficino’s wording.

appellatio / nomen / proprie

appellatio / nomen / proprie. Printed forms: appellationes; nomen; Proprie.

A designation, name, or strict application of a name. Intellectual names apply to God by cause rather than form, whereas angel is properly mind. References: II.9.12. See Naming by cause.

dicere / vocare / appellare

dicere / vocare / appellare. Printed forms: appellationes; appellavit; dicuntur; nuncupantur.

To say or name, with reported assertion and technical designation distinguished. Names such as necessity or mind require their local qualification; things “commonly called” lowly need not be inherently contemptible. References: II.5.4, II.7.11, II.9.12, II.9.22. See Naming by cause.

mens mentium / lumen luminum

mens mentium / lumen luminum. Printed forms: lumenque luminum; mens sit mentium.

Mind of minds and light of lights. The genitives mark the source of the perfections rather than ordinary membership in the class of minds or lights. References: II.9.13. See Naming by cause.

secundum causam / per formam

secundum causam / per formam. Printed forms: per formam; secundum causam.

By causal relation rather than the form proper to a kind. The qualification prevents divine intelligence from being classified as one more member of the genus of minds. References: II.9.12. See Naming by cause.

tribuere / tradere

tribuere / tradere. Printed forms: tradit; tribuimus.

To attribute a name or hand down a teaching. John’s theology is presented as transmitted authority; intellectual designations of God are explicitly qualified. References: II.3.10, II.9.12. See Naming by cause.