From the book
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordOfficium is a function or characteristic task.
- In the Platonic TheologyNatural power generates, nourishes and grows the body: Peripatetics call it vegetative, while Ficino’s Platonists call it nature.
- In this editionThe edition deliberately preserves all three constructions rather than translating each as “acts.”
- A place to readThe triad is defined through its operations and developmental order.
Meaning
Officium is a function or characteristic task. The three prepositional constructions distinguish acting in body, through body, and through oneself. Intelligentia here is the activity of understanding, not a separate intelligence or merely a general capacity.
Use in the book
Natural power generates, nourishes and grows the body: Peripatetics call it vegetative, while Ficino’s Platonists call it nature. External sense sees, hears, smells, tastes and touches. Internal sense turns over the images left by those encounters, so it too acts through body even when no external object is presently affecting an organ. Understanding investigates and finds what is neither body nor a bodily image. The developmental story assigns natural action to the fetus, sensation to birth and pure understanding only with difficulty to adulthood. This is Ficino’s philosophical and physiological account, not contemporary developmental science; his thirty-year-old “children” are a polemical judgement about intellectual practice.
VI.3 makes the triad determine the proof’s order. Natural power principally excludes body and partly excludes a form divided through body. Sensation is to show indivisibility and whole presence without fixation to one organ. Understanding is to confirm these and add freedom from material origin. This prevents reading every natural-power argument as an already complete demonstration of the human soul’s immortality. The later distinction between governing and cognitive succession in VI.12 also shows that natural productivity and explicit thought are not interchangeable activities.
Places to read
Translation in this edition
The edition deliberately preserves all three constructions rather than translating each as “acts.” The Latin’s per se ipsam excludes reliance upon bodily images for this act; it does not deny that the same soul also acts in and through body.
agere in corpore; per corpus; per se
agere in corpore; per corpus; per se. Printed forms: agit in corpore; agit per corpus; operatur etiam per se ipsam.
The three modes of operation: within body, by bodily mediation and through the soul itself. The prepositions organize the book’s programme and prevent conflating nutrition, sensation and understanding. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
agere; operari
agere; operari. Printed forms: agant; agat; agente; agentem; agenti; agentis; agere; agit; agunt; operatur; operetur.
To act or operate, with the mode and medium specified by the local construction. Acting in body, through body and through oneself differ; a bodily effect’s action is derivative, whereas immanent psychic operation belongs to its inward source. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.10, VI.4.6, VI.9.3, VI.12.5, VI.12.10, VI.12.18, VI.13.11. See Three offices and the order of proof.
attingere; percipere
attingere; percipere. Printed forms: attigerunt; attingenda; attingit; perceperimus; percipimus; percipiunt; Percipiunt.
To reach or make cognitive contact with; to perceive or apprehend. Contact can be sensible or intellectual; taking a body or an incorporeal object as its terminus does not imply the same physical touching. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.9, VI.2.10, VI.2.13. See Three offices and the order of proof.
fetus; adultus
fetus; adultus. Printed forms: adulto; fetu; trigesimo aetatis anno.
Fetus, mature body and the thirtieth year of age. These mark Ficino’s developmental and polemical narrative; they are not endorsed modern developmental thresholds. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
generare; nutrire; augere
generare; nutrire; augere. Printed forms: auget; generat; nutritque.
To generate, nourish and increase. These natural operations form the first class of evidence for a principle beyond bare corporeal bulk. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
homo; animal; animans
homo; animal; animans. Printed forms: animal; animali; animalia; animalis; animalium; animantibus; homine; homines; hominis; hominum; homo.
Human being and living animal or creature. The argument aims to classify our human soul, while natural examples often range across animals and plants without establishing that every soul is rational. References: VI.1.1, VI.2.1, VI.2.9, VI.2.12, VI.2.14, VI.4.1, VI.4.3, VI.7.1, VI.8.5, VI.10.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
igitur; ergo; quapropter; sequitur
igitur; ergo; quapropter; sequitur. Printed forms: ergo; Ergo; Igitur; igitur; Itaque; itaque; Quamobrem; Quapropter; Quare; Quocirca; sequitur.
Therefore, consequently, and it follows: markers of inference. These connect a specific conclusion to preceding premises, including conclusions drawn only within an opponent’s hypothesis. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.6, VI.2.12, VI.2.15, VI.3.2, VI.4.2, VI.4.5, VI.7.1, VI.8.5, VI.11.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
indivisibilis; impartibilis
indivisibilis; impartibilis. Printed forms: impartibilem; indivisibilem.
Indivisible and incapable of partition. The sensory and intellectual proofs are promised to establish these characteristics together with whole presence. References: VI.3.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
intelligentia
intelligentia. Printed forms: intelligentia; intelligentia pura; intelligentiae; intelligentiam.
Understanding as the soul’s activity directed to incorporeal objects. The passage treats pure exercise as difficult and late, not as continuously actual in every human being. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
Understanding as a still freer mode of cognition. Its superiority is announced but deferred to later demonstration; this unit does not complete the promised intellectual proof. References: VII.13.1. See Freedom from matter and causal priority.
Understanding as an act or activity; plural forms can designate acts or conceptions rather than separate minds. It names the highest stage of the opening ascent and later the acts whose hypothetical simultaneous infinity is rejected. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2, VIII.1.5, VIII.3.6, VIII.3.7. See Intellectual forms and intelligible essences.
investigare; invenire
investigare; invenire. Printed forms: invenit; investigat.
To investigate and discover. The bare incorporeal power seeks what is neither body nor a bodily image; understanding is characterized through this activity. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
natura; naturalis
natura; naturalis. Printed forms: natura; naturae; naturale; naturalem; naturali; naturalis; naturam.
Nature or a thing’s defining native constitution; natural. Natura can name the vegetative power, the defining character of a body, or the order of nature invoked in a reply; the reference must be specified locally. References: VI.2.1, VI.7.1, VI.11.2, VI.13.4. See Three offices and the order of proof.
numen invocare
numen invocare. Printed forms: divino numine invocato.
Calling upon divine power at the start of the proof. The invocation introduces the first argumentative stage and does not replace its reasons. References: VI.3.2. See Three offices and the order of proof.
officium
officium. Printed forms: officia.
A characteristic task or function. The soul’s three offices define acting in body, through body and through itself, rather than three separate souls. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
origo a materia
origo a materia. Printed forms: nullam trahat originem a materia.
Deriving no origin from matter. Ficino assigns this additional conclusion to the intellectual stage, beyond what natural power establishes. References: VI.3.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
potissimum; partim
potissimum; partim. Printed forms: partim; potissimum.
Principally and in part, specifying the scope of a proof. Natural power principally rules out body and only partly a divided form; later stages have further work to do. References: VI.3.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
proprius; communis
proprius; communis. Printed forms: communem; communi; communis; propria; propriae; propriam; propriis; proprium; proprius.
Proper or specific to a thing, contrasted with common or shared. The inquiry moves from common immortality to arguments proper to human soul, and from matter common to bodies to a proper life-giving cause. References: VI.1.1, VI.2.9, VI.4.1, VI.4.4, VI.7.1, VI.12.18. See Three offices and the order of proof.
regere; ducere; gubernare
regere; ducere; gubernare. Printed forms: ducentes; ducit; ducitur; gubernans; regendum; regeretur; regitur.
To govern, lead or guide. The soul directs body and intellectual activity leads to higher principles; a ruling organ in a reported theory is not the same as soul’s unlocated whole presence. References: VI.1.4, VI.2.17, VI.2.19, VI.6.4, VI.9.4, VI.12.17, VI.12.18. See Three offices and the order of proof.
reliquiae sensuum
reliquiae sensuum. Printed forms: reliquias sensuum.
Remnants or vestiges left by sensory perception. Internal sense revolves these bodily images; their retained presence differs from pure intellectual apprehension. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
revolvere; recolligere
revolvere; recolligere. Printed forms: recolligit; revolvit.
To turn over and gather again. These verbs describe the internal sense’s handling of bodily images, not necessarily the soul’s higher self-reflection. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
sensus exterior; sensus interior
sensus exterior; sensus interior. Printed forms: interiorem sensum; sensum tum exteriorem.
Outward sensation and inward handling of sensory images. Both act through body, even when internal sense considers residues of absent objects. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
ubique totus
ubique totus. Printed forms: totam per singula; ubique totam.
Whole throughout each part; whole everywhere. This is not quantitative scattering of fractions and is paired with the denial of confinement to one member. References: VI.3.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
vegetatrix; natura
vegetatrix; natura. Printed forms: naturam; vegetatricem; vegetatrix.
The life-giving power of generation, nourishment and growth. Peripatetic and Platonic names differ; the function is distinguished from sensation and intellectual inquiry. References: VI.2.1, VI.10.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
videre; audire; olfacere; gustare; tangere
videre; audire; olfacere; gustare; tangere. Printed forms: audit; gustat; olfacit; tangit; videt.
To see, hear, smell, taste and touch. The complete five-sense list specifies the outward mode rather than treating all perception as vision. References: VI.2.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.
virtus; vis
virtus; vis. Printed forms: vi; vim; vires; viribus; virtus; virtute; virtutem; vis.
Effective power or capacity, distinct from moral virtue and sometimes from potency not yet actual. The agent’s power, natural formative activity and seminal instrument are specific uses; possession of power does not itself identify the soul with a bodily quality. References: VI.1.5, VI.1.6, VI.2.8, VI.2.10, VI.3.1, VI.6.3, VI.10.1, VI.11.1. See Three offices and the order of proof.