Shadow and mirror · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordUmbra is a shadow; umbratilis means shadow-like.
In the Platonic TheologyThe effect produced wholly by its cause requires continuing support, as a shadow depends on a body.
In this edition“Image-like” is preferable here to an unqualified “imaginary” if the latter suggests that nothing real has been produced.
A place to readThe shadow models the whole effect’s dependence on its producing cause

Meaning

Umbra is a shadow; umbratilis means shadow-like. Speculum is a mirror. Imaginarium means image-like in this context, and vanum marks relative emptiness or insubstantiality. These words must be read with the comparison to the cause that qualifies them.

Use in the book

The effect produced wholly by its cause requires continuing support, as a shadow depends on a body. Ficino then intensifies the comparison: finite world to infinite God is even more dependent than a finite shadow is to its finite body. The point is not that the world is a hallucination. Its received being is contrasted with the self-subsisting source’s substance.

The mirror image adds the simultaneity of production and preservation. Images are both made and sustained in a mirror through bodies. The first cause’s dominion likewise includes continuing dependence, not merely a past outflow. Ficino uses this to explain why God acts in the operations of subordinate causes. Shadow and mirror thus perform different but related work: relative ontological frailty and ongoing causal support.

Places to read

II.7.22The shadow models the whole effect’s dependence on its producing cause
II.7.23Finite–infinite comparison intensifies the image; the mirror links making and preserving

Translation in this edition

“Image-like” is preferable here to an unqualified “imaginary” if the latter suggests that nothing real has been produced. The supplied “compared with” and “as it were” preserve the relative and analogical framing.

umbra / umbratilis / vanus

umbra / umbratilis / vanus. Printed forms: imaginarium; umbra; umbratilis; vanior; vanum; vanus.

Shadow or shadow-like; relatively empty or image-like. The words compare dependent effects with the substance of their cause rather than declaring creatures unreal. References: II.7.22, II.7.23. See Shadow and mirror.