From the book
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordPlatforms are plans, patterns, or models on which a thing can be formed.
- In TraherneIn Traherne’s rendering of Pico, the Creator has completed the ordered world but finds no unused pattern for the new contemplator who is to admire it.
- In this editionThe 2026 note identifies Pico’s corresponding word as patterns or archetypes.
- A place to beginNo preconceived platform remains for the creation of humanity after the other orders are complete.
Meaning
Platforms are plans, patterns, or models on which a thing can be formed. The word here has neither the modern digital sense nor its ordinary sense of a raised standing surface.
Use in the book
In Traherne’s rendering of Pico, the Creator has completed the ordered world but finds no unused pattern for the new contemplator who is to admire it. The difficulty is dramatized so that humanity’s unusual dignity can emerge: instead of receiving only a fixed allotment, man participates in the goods assigned to the several creatures. The architectural language suits the surrounding description of God as supreme architect and the world as house and temple. Understanding platform as model keeps the problem intelligible: this is about the form of a new creature, not finding it somewhere to stand.
Places to read
- IV.75No preconceived platform remains for the creation of humanity after the other orders are complete.
In this edition
The 2026 note identifies Pico’s corresponding word as patterns or archetypes. The passage is a dramatized account of dignity, not a literal failure of divine planning.
Source note
Primary text: IV.75; historical gloss and translation comparison: 2026 edition note to IV.75.