Statue and solidity · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordStatua is a statue; lapis stone; aes, attested as aeris, bronze or copper alloy.
In the Platonic TheologyThe statue distinguishes the endurance of a craft-product from the conditions that make that endurance possible.
In this edition“Bronze” is the locally supported interpretation of aeris.
A place to readThe statue’s material endurance illustrates nature’s continuing dependence on God

Meaning

Statua is a statue; lapis stone; aes, attested as aeris, bronze or copper alloy. Soliditas is firmness or solidity. Here aeris belongs to aes, not aer, air: the solid material of a statue determines the reading.

Use in the book

The statue distinguishes the endurance of a craft-product from the conditions that make that endurance possible. Art gives the work its crafted arrangement, but its continued integrity depends on the natural solidity of stone or bronze. Nature then stands in an analogous relation to God: natural things endure through divine influx, and nature’s own existence lasts only as God preserves it.

The analogy is graded, not an equation of all kinds of making. A human artisan presupposes material and its natural powers; God is said to grant being to nature itself. The statue therefore prepares the subsequent argument that the first cause does not merely begin a process and leave it independent. It does not assert that every statue remains forever or that crafted form and material solidity are the same cause.

Places to read

II.7.17, II.7.18The statue’s material endurance illustrates nature’s continuing dependence on God

Translation in this edition

“Bronze” is the locally supported interpretation of aeris. This is a useful warning against automatically matching the written form to “air,” especially since aerem occurs elsewhere in the nearby heating example.

statua / lapis / aes

statua / lapis / aes. Printed forms: aeris; lapidis; soliditatem; statua.

Statue, stone, and bronze, with material solidity. The statue endures through natural firmness; aeris here is bronze rather than air. References: II.7.17. See Statue and solidity.