From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordThe verbs mean receiving or taking in; capere can also mean containing or grasping.
- In the Platonic TheologyThe first argument proceeds under the hypothesis that the soul is a body.
- In this editionThe image of Plato is the perceived person’s image, not a reference to a Platonic Idea.
- A place to readWax and seals introduce limits of scale and the confusion of multiple images.
Meaning
The verbs mean receiving or taking in; capere can also mean containing or grasping. Their common object does not establish a common manner of reception. Wax receives an impressed figure spatially, whereas the disputed question is whether the soul receives perceptual content in that same bodily way.
Use in the book
The first argument proceeds under the hypothesis that the soul is a body. A bodily receiver takes the parts of an object in its own parts. Wax cannot bear an impression larger than itself; a second impression either replaces the first or confuses it. The supposition that wax could judge the size it contains lets Ficino transfer those limitations to a hypothetical corporeal soul. Plato’s image in Socrates’ eye would be limited by the eye, then by the brain, and at most by Socrates’ entire body. On the hypothesis, Socrates could never judge something larger than himself. Multiple people would similarly become either forgotten or indistinguishable impressions.
The sequence is a reductio, not a description of the position Ficino finally accepts. Its point is the difference between the size of a bodily trace and the magnitude judged through an image. The mirror comparison extends the objection: a face appears differently in a pupil and a larger mirror, whereas the soul can judge objects of immense magnitude and conceive something greater than any assigned body. The argument does not say that the soul is an infinitely large mirror. It denies that any assigned bodily magnitude adequately determines its cognitive capacity.
Ficino then expressly withdraws the literal picture of spiritual color-images being manufactured by bodies and stored in mirrors or brains. Reading the first comparison as his settled physiology would suppress that correction.
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Translation in this edition
The image of Plato is the perceived person’s image, not a reference to a Platonic Idea. “Receiver,” eye, brain and whole body are successive tests of the same hypothesis. The apparatus stresses their preservation rather than identifying any one of them as Ficino’s final seat of perception.
capere
capere. Printed forms: capere; capit; cepit.
To contain or grasp; context decides whether the capacity is spatial or cognitive. A supposed bodily soul is tested against the size and variety of the things it would contain. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
cera
cera. Printed forms: cera; cerae.
Wax as the recipient of a seal's figure. Its comparison is limited to restoration through conformity; the soul is not thereby said to be bodily wax. References: V.11.6. See Seal, wax and restoration.
Wax, capable of receiving a seal’s impressed figure. Its bounded surface and altered impressions make bodily reception concrete under the corporeal-soul hypothesis. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
corpus / corporalis
corpus / corporalis. Printed forms: corporales; Corporales; corporali; corporalia; corporalis; corporalium; corpore; corporea; corporeo; corpori; corporibus; corporis; corporum; corpus; Corpus.
Body and bodily, the extended and temporally changing order contrasted with separate form. A body can persist generically while its individual form perishes; bodily dependence does not determine the rational soul's essence. References: V.3.1, V.7.2, V.10.2, V.11.7, V.11.8, V.13.18, V.15.1, V.15.2, V.15.27. See Transmission of form and natural order.
Body, or belonging to bodily magnitude and modification. Receiving parts in parts is the hypothesized bodily mode whose restrictions Ficino denies of cognition. References: VII.1.1, VII.4.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
figura / figurare
figura / figurare. Printed forms: figura; figurae; figuram; figuras; figuratur.
A determinate shape, or being impressed with one. In wax it is an imposed bodily pattern; difficulty receiving it illustrates how rigidity threatens learning. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
imago
imago. Printed forms: imaginem; imagines; imaginibus; imaginum; imago.
An image or likeness; an inferior manifestation can remain genuine at its own level. Mirrors model dependence, the ranked ladder distinguishes image from original, and divine images shine in soul. References: V.6.1, V.10.2, V.12.12, V.14.9, V.15.4. See Image, shadow and ranked truth.
An image or representation, sensible or mental according to context. Internal sense handles bodily residues; the cave displays projected likenesses; the closing memory proof tests images retained by or allegedly transferred between subjects. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.7, VI.2.14, VI.13.11. See Images, migration and the perfect agent.
An image through which something is represented or perceived. Plato’s image is the image of a visible person; it is not a technical reference to a separate Platonic Idea. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
immensus / ingens
immensus / ingens. Printed forms: immensae; immensum; ingens; ingentem.
Immeasurably large or very great. The soul’s conception of such bodies and of a still greater body challenges any assigned spatial size of the soul itself. References: VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
iudicare
iudicare. Printed forms: iudicantur; iudicaret; iudicat.
To judge or determine something about what appears. Hypothetical wax would judge only the size of its impression; the soul judges objects through images. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
magnitudo
magnitudo. Printed forms: magnitudine; magnitudinem; magnitudinis; magnitudo.
Magnitude or spatial size. Ficino distinguishes an image’s bodily dimensions from the magnitude correctly judged through it. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
maior / minor
maior / minor. Printed forms: maior; maiora; maiorem; maiores; maiori; maius; minora; minoresve.
Greater or smaller in the specified respect, usually bodily magnitude in the mirror argument. The soul’s ability to conceive a greater body than an assigned one does not make the soul itself infinitely large. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
oculus / cerebrum
oculus / cerebrum. Printed forms: cerebrum; oculo; oculum; oculus.
Eye and brain, bodily candidates for receiving or judging sensory images. The argument expands the proposed image-container from eye to brain to the whole body, retaining each hypothetical limit. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
Plato / Socrates
Plato / Socrates. Printed forms: Plato; Platonem; Platonis; Socrates; Socratici; Socratico; Socratis.
Named individual humans whose existence requires particular temporal and local conditions. Their individuality contrasts with common humanity; Plato later serves as Ariston's determinate offspring. References: V.7.1, V.8.1, V.13.5. See Comets and defining accounts.
Named persons serving as perceived object and perceiver in the optical thought experiment. Socrates judges Plato through an image; the dimensions of that image are compared with Socrates’ organs and body. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
prospicere / intueri / excogitare
prospicere / intueri / excogitare. Printed forms: excogitare; excogitato; intueri; prospexeris.
To look at, behold or conceive through thought. The passage moves from inspecting a visible reflection to conceiving bodies beyond any assigned magnitude. References: VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
sigillum
sigillum. Printed forms: sigillo.
A seal supplying an impressed model. Returning an impression toward complete conformity with its seal restores it, illustrating the soul's confirmation by its Idea. References: V.11.6. See Seal, wax and restoration.
A seal or stamping device. The seal’s image cannot be impressed in wax as a figure exceeding its receiver’s size. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
speculum / specillum
speculum / specillum. Printed forms: specillo; speculo; speculorum.
Mirror, including the diminutive little mirror. Differences of apparent scale in mirrors test the supposed dimensional limits of the soul’s living mirror. References: VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
suscipere
suscipere. Printed forms: suscipiens; suscipiet; suscipit.
To receive something into a subject, with the mode of reception determined by that subject. Wax receives a figure spatially; the argument asks whether soul must receive an image in the same manner. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
terminus praescriptus
terminus praescriptus. Printed forms: praescriptum magnitudinis terminum.
An assigned boundary of size. The argument denies a prescribed bodily magnitude for the soul’s range or substance; it does not assign the soul endless spatial extension. References: VII.1.2. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
transferre
transferre. Printed forms: transferetur.
To transfer from one place to another. The image’s imagined transfer from eye to brain is a concession within the material-reception hypothesis, not a final physiological explanation. References: VII.1.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
vultus / pupilla
vultus / pupilla. Printed forms: pupilla; pupillam; pupillis; vultum.
Face and pupil of the eye. A face reflected in a pupil and a mirror supplies the scale example; the tiny pupil also motivates gathered, impartible reception. References: VII.1.2, VII.3.1. See Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors.
Plato (authorities and interlocutors)
Plato. Plato is both an authority and an illustrative individual in this volume. His name in examples of particular human beings must be distinguished from claims attributed to his works. The cave, the mixing-bowl account and the hierarchy of intelligible forms have different local uses. References: V.5.9, VI.2.14, VI.2.17, VII.1.1, VIII.1.1. See Plato’s cave and gradual education; Four causes and graded dependence; Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors; Common nature, participation, and the divine Idea.
Socrates and named pupils or companions (authorities and interlocutors)
Socrates and named pupils or companions. Socrates and Plato frequently function as concrete individuals in arguments about reception, generation and universals. Xenophon, Alcibiades and Phaedrus in VII.1.1 are remembered persons; Phaedrus there is not a citation of the dialogue. Antisthenes and Xenophon in VIII.1.2 likewise help distinguish individuals from common nature. References: V.7.1, V.8.1, VII.1.1, VIII.1.2. See Reception and the receiver; Receiving images: wax, seals and mirrors; Common nature, participation, and the divine Idea.