Nourishment and the life-giving form · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordAlimentum is nourishment or its supply; coalescere here describes living growth.
In the Platonic TheologyThe first natural-power argument compares flourishing organisms and plants with severed logs and stones.
In this editionAt VI.4.6 the reading text keeps M1482’s animatum quiddam rather than the later witnesses’ animarum quiddam.
A place to readGrowth distinguishes the relevant living bodies from detached wood and stones.

Meaning

Alimentum is nourishment or its supply; coalescere here describes living growth. Affectio is a determinate condition rather than an emotion. Forma vivifica is the form that gives life; animatum is what has been animated, not the soul itself.

Use in the book

The first natural-power argument compares flourishing organisms and plants with severed logs and stones. All are bodies, but only the former nourish and grow in the relevant way. Bare corporeal matter, shared by all, therefore cannot explain the difference. An opponent replies that the soul is a special, appropriately disposed body, not just any body. Ficino asks what makes it special: if nothing beyond common bulk, the proposed difference disappears; if a quality or form, that additional life-giving principle is what deserves the name soul.

The reply is therefore a causal and definitional distinction, not simply an observation that wood does not grow. Matter joined to soul shares life and is called animate, but is neither soul nor part of soul. The beginning and cessation of characteristic operations upon soul’s arrival and departure reinforce the conclusion that body as such is not their source. This establishes noncorporeality within the staged programme; it does not yet identify every life-giving form with the fully independent rational soul.

Places to read

VI.4.1, VI.4.2Growth distinguishes the relevant living bodies from detached wood and stones.
VI.4.3, VI.4.4The opponent’s “body of such a kind” requires an explanatory added determination.
VI.4.5, VI.4.6The life-giving form is soul; the participating matter is animate.

Translation in this edition

At VI.4.6 the reading text keeps M1482’s animatum quiddam rather than the later witnesses’ animarum quiddam. This substantive distinction is essential to the inference. The supposed powers of attached stones elsewhere must not erase this chapter’s explicit “torn from the earth” qualification.

accedere; discedere

accedere; discedere. Printed forms: accedente; accessum; discessum.

To arrive or depart. Characteristic bodily operations occur with soul’s presence and cease upon departure, identifying it as their principle. References: VI.4.6. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

animatum quiddam

animatum quiddam. Printed forms: animatum quiddam.

Something animated or animate. The matter joined to soul is life-participating, neither soul itself nor part of soul. References: VI.4.6. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

coalescere; virere

coalescere; virere. Printed forms: coalescunt; virentes.

To grow together and flourish green. The opening natural-power proof contrasts flourishing life with uprooted logs and stones sharing the same corporeal matter. References: VI.4.1. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

forma vivifica

forma vivifica. Printed forms: formam; vivificam.

The form giving life, rather than matter receiving life. Ficino assigns the name soul to the causal principle, not to the whole body that it animates. References: VI.4.5. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

moles; affectio

moles; affectio. Printed forms: affectionem; molem; superadditam.

Corporeal bulk and an added qualifying condition. A body’s being this particular kind requires more than the common matter of all bodies. References: VI.4.4. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

principium alimenti

principium alimenti. Printed forms: anima nutritiva; principium alimenti.

A source of nourishment; the nutritive soul. The power explaining living growth is distinguished from the matter common to growing and nongrowing bodies. References: VI.4.1, VI.4.2. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

talis; sic affectus

talis; sic affectus. Printed forms: sic affectum; tale quiddam.

A body of such a determinate kind and so disposed. This is the opponent’s qualification, which prompts Ficino to ask what additional determination makes the body special. References: VI.4.3. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.

vivificare

vivificare. Printed forms: vivifica; vivificam; vivificat; vivificatum; vivificet; vivificum.

To give life; life-giving or made alive according to the form. The life-giving source is distinguished from the body made alive; the visible body’s participation does not make its matter a part of soul. References: VI.2.21, VI.2.27, VI.4.5, VI.4.6, VI.5.3, VI.13.7. See Nourishment and the life-giving form.