Touch and penetration · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordTangere is to touch; penetrare to pass through or reach into; resistere and obstare to resist or obstruct; attingere to reach or make contact.
In the Platonic TheologyA body touches what contains it through quantitative dimensions, but incorporeal substance does so through power.
In this edition“Touches” is retained in II.6.1, so the reader must preserve the explicit contrast between dimensions and power.
A place to readContact through power and absence of resistance establish divine presence

Meaning

Tangere is to touch; penetrare to pass through or reach into; resistere and obstare to resist or obstruct; attingere to reach or make contact. Bodily and incorporeal subjects give these common verbs different modes of application.

Use in the book

A body touches what contains it through quantitative dimensions, but incorporeal substance does so through power. The analogy establishes the chapter’s intended kind of presence before the argument expands it universally. Divine purity and power encounter no resisting obstacle; the claim is not that God moves through material pores.

In the reported theory of universal mental presence, mind’s essence reaches God through an essential inclination, prior to vital and intellectual activity. Because neither body nor spirit obstructs it, the cited thinkers infer an unrestricted presence. The flame reaching its natural goal illustrates orientation, but its hypothetical indivisibility is part of the analogy. It is not a claim that ordinary fire has no dimensions or that an intellect travels spatially until it finds a distant God.

Places to read

II.6.1, II.6.3Contact through power and absence of resistance establish divine presence
II.6.23Reaching and penetration belong to the authorities’ account of essential orientation

Translation in this edition

“Touches” is retained in II.6.1, so the reader must preserve the explicit contrast between dimensions and power. “Reaches” in II.6.23 translates attingit; it need not imply locomotion.

expugnare / repugnare

expugnare / repugnare. Printed forms: expugnat; repugnat.

To overcome by assault or to resist. Immunity from efficacious qualitative change is taken to imply the easier freedom from dimensional obstruction. References: II.6.18, II.6.19. See Touch and penetration.

penetrare / resistere / obstare

penetrare / resistere / obstare. Printed forms: obstat; penetrare; penetrat; penetret; resistit.

To penetrate or reach through; to resist or obstruct. Unlimited divine purity meets no barrier; the reported mental-presence theory extends a similar nonresistance argument to mind. References: II.6.3, II.6.23. See Touch and penetration.

tangere / attingere

tangere / attingere. Printed forms: attingeret; Attingit; attingit; attingunt; tangent; tangi; tangit.

To touch or reach, with the mode determined by bodily or spiritual subject. Incorporeal contact is through power rather than quantitative dimensions; mental reaching is not bodily travel. References: II.6.1, II.6.17, II.6.23. See Touch and penetration.

To touch or reach, physically or through mediating power. Contact between sphere surfaces, alleged daemon tangibility, craft's surface action, and mind's bodily reach are different constructions. References: IV.1.13, IV.1.31, IV.1.39, IV.2.25. See Proximity and causal presence.