Ostrich and egg · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordStruthii is the genitive identifying the ostrich; oculus is its eye, ovum its egg, and fovere warming or brooding.
In the Platonic TheologyFicino claims that cognition in creatures produces no substantial effect without affect, and invokes the ostrich’s eye fixed eagerly upon its egg as a qualified indication of that claim.
In this editionThe English “brooding” renders fovendo without confirming the efficacy of a gaze.
A place to readThe eye-and-egg example illustrates cognition operating through affect.

Meaning

Struthii is the genitive identifying the ostrich; oculus is its eye, ovum its egg, and fovere warming or brooding. Intentus and avidissime characterize the eye as fixed with great eagerness. The vocabulary joins directed attention with affective force.

Use in the book

Ficino claims that cognition in creatures produces no substantial effect without affect, and invokes the ostrich’s eye fixed eagerly upon its egg as a qualified indication of that claim. He then reasons that divine intelligence, immeasurably more effective in creation than the ostrich’s gaze in brooding, must contain a most powerful affect of will. The inference is comparative and inferential: coniectari possumus says that “we can infer” or conjecture, and quodammodo already limits the illustrative claim. Neither the anecdote nor its extension supplies an independent observation of the mechanism. The following appeal to divine delight is a second consideration, based on the perfection of intellect and object.

Selected annotated passages.

Places to read

II.11.31The eye-and-egg example illustrates cognition operating through affect.
II.11.32A comparison supports the power and delight attributed to divine will.

Translation in this edition

The English “brooding” renders fovendo without confirming the efficacy of a gaze. This is natural lore invoked by Ficino, not verified information about ostrich incubation. Struthii is the printed form; a normalized dictionary name should be identified as supplied rather than substituted into the quotation.

avidus / intentus

avidus / intentus. Printed forms: avidissime; intentus.

Eager or avid / fixed intently. The adverb and participle emphasize affective intensity in the ostrich’s directed gaze. References: II.11.31. See Ostrich and egg.

exemplum / signum / indicare

exemplum / signum / indicare. Printed forms: exemplo; indicat.

Example / indication / indicate. The ostrich case is said to indicate the thesis in a qualified way; an illustration does not thereby become independently verified evidence. References: II.11.31, III.1.32. See Ostrich and egg.

ovum / fovere

ovum / fovere. Printed forms: fovendo; ovum.

Egg / warm or brood. The brooding example supports the comparative argument about divine intelligence; its biological premise is attributed to Ficino. References: II.11.31, II.11.32. See Ostrich and egg.

struthii oculus

struthii oculus. Printed forms: struthii intuitus; struthii oculus.

The ostrich’s eye or gaze. The eye fixed upon the egg supplies Ficino’s natural-lore illustration of affective efficacy, not verified incubation science. References: II.11.31, II.11.32. See Ostrich and egg.