DiotimosReading Desk

Number degree and comparison

Proportion and analogy

proportio, sicut ... ita, quemadmodum, quanto ... tanto, magis, multo magis.

Proportio names a correspondence of relations.

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordProportio names a correspondence of relations.
  • In the Platonic TheologyBook IV repeatedly argues from lower to higher: if low, dense earth and water have lives, higher, purer spheres should have them still more; if small bodily instruments are alive, heaven as life's instrument should be alive; if ordinary animals are governed by one soul, the more powerful world-animal should be unified at least as strongly.
  • In this editionComparative wording should be preserved rather than reduced to flat assertions.
  • A place to readgreater inward efficacy and higher bodily perfection ground a-fortiori inferences

Meaning

Proportio names a correspondence of relations. The paired constructions “as... so” and “the more... the more” organize analogy and graded inference; multo magis marks an a-fortiori step. Such expressions are argument-bearing grammar, not merely ornament.

Use in the book

Book IV repeatedly argues from lower to higher: if low, dense earth and water have lives, higher, purer spheres should have them still more; if small bodily instruments are alive, heaven as life's instrument should be alive; if ordinary animals are governed by one soul, the more powerful world-animal should be unified at least as strongly. Each inference has a particular shared respect, such as causal efficacy, receptivity, or order. It does not identify every feature of the compared cases.

Proportion can also expose an unacceptable result. Assigning God to the first sphere and other intellects to the others risks making their relative superiority merely proportional to that of the spheres. Ficino rejects that limitation. The body-to-body and mover-to-mover correspondence later supports distinct souls for sufficiently distinct bodies, while universal soul is related to nature as nature to body. These arguments must be assessed through their stated premises; a repeated “as... so” is not independent empirical confirmation.

Places to read

  1. IV.1.10–1223 and IV.1.36greater inward efficacy and higher bodily perfection ground a-fortiori inferences
  2. IV.1.59–602a proportional allocation would wrongly limit God
  3. IV.1.68 and IV.1.79–832345living instruments, distinct bodies, and the world-animal supply different analogies
  4. IV.2.13–16234the journey explains the succession of celestial operations by explicitly transferred comparison

Translation in this edition

Comparative wording should be preserved rather than reduced to flat assertions. “By the same reasoning” can signal extension of an argument, but the reader must still identify which relation is being carried over.

comparare / proportio

comparare / proportio. Printed forms: comparavimus; proportio.

To compare; a proportion between related terms. The grades are compared in descent, while proportion between mover and moved cannot place God within a finite series of peer movers. References: IV.1.1, IV.1.59. See Proportion and analogy.

exemplum / instar

exemplum / instar. Printed forms: exemplum; instar.

An example; after the likeness of. Euclid's journey is explicitly introduced as an example, while God is described in the likeness of a circle; neither expression authorizes transferring every physical feature. References: IV.2.13, IV.2.21. See Proportion and analogy.