Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499)
Author of Three Books on Life
About the Author
The leading figure in the Renaissance revival of Platonism, Marsilio Ficino profoundly influenced the philosophical thought of his own and following centuries. Born near Florence, Italy, the son of a physician, Ficino received his early training in philosophy, medicine, and theology and devoted show more himself to the study of Greek. His learning attracted the attention of one of his father's eminent patients, Cosimo de' Medici, of the powerful Florentine banking family, and in 1462 Cosimo established him at a villa and supplied him with Greek manuscripts for translation. Here Ficino set up his famous Florentine Academy, devoted to the study and celebration of Plato's teachings. He continued to receive the active support of the Medici until their expulsion from Florence in 1494. Ficino's labors as a translator provided his Greekless contemporaries with access to the greatest works of the ancient Platonic tradition. His Latin version of the dialogues of Plato, published in 1484, made the entirety of Plato available for the first time in translation. Ficino also prepared translations of other important sources, such as the Neoplatonist Plotinus, Proclus, Iamblichus, Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and the Greek works attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, a fabled Egyptian priest supposedly contemporary with Moses. To Ficino, the Platonic tradition represented an ongoing heritage of divinely inspired ancient wisdom reconcilable with Christian revelation. His reading of Plato in the light of late Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus and Proclus, survived long after the Renaissance and remained the prevalent interpretation of Plato's thought until comparatively recent times. His chief philosophical work, Platonic Theology (1482), represents an attempt to demonstrate the immortality of the human soul on Platonic grounds in a way that was consistent with Christian doctrine. It represents reality as a hierarchy, from God down to material bodies, with rational soul, the level proper to humans, as a mean that participates in the characteristics of both higher and lower beings. This scheme derived with important modifications from Plotinus was to influence many later Platonists including Ficino's younger friend and colleague Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. Ficino's devotion to Platonism must thus be seen within the context of his Christianity. He was ordained a priest in 1437 and later served as a canon of the Florentine cathedral. His intellectual synthesis of Platonism and Christianity, however, so powerfully appealing to the Medici circle, was a far cry from the reformist zeal of Savonarola, whose rise to power in 1494 saw Ficino enter into a quiet retirement until his death. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Bust by Andrea Ferrucci (at Florence Cathedral)
Series
Works by Marsilio Ficino
Platonic Theology, Volume 3: Books IX–XI (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2003) 55 copies, 1 review
Commentaries on Plato, Volume 1: Phaedrus and Ion (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2008) 24 copies
On Dionysius the Areopagite, Volume 1: Mystical Theology and The Divine Names, Part I (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2015) 23 copies
On Dionysius the Areopagite, Volume 2: The Divine Names, Part II (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2015) 16 copies
Commentaries on Plato, Volume 2: Parmenides, Part I (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2012) 11 copies
De wereld als kunstwerk inleiding tot de platonische theologie : vijf sleutels tot de platonische wijsheid (2005) 10 copies
Commentaries on Plato, Volume 2: Parmenides, Part II (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2012) 9 copies
Commentary on Plotinus, Volume 5: Ennead III, Part 2, and Ennead IV (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2018) 7 copies
Commentary on Plotinus, Volume 4: Ennead III, Part 1 (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) (2017) 6 copies
"Philebus" Commentary: A Critical Edition and Translation (Publications of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA) (1975) 6 copies
Consilio contro la pestilenza 3 copies
Prosatori latini del Quattrocento. 7. Ermolao Barbaro, Angelo Poliziano, Marsilio Ficino — Author — 2 copies
Opera omnia 2 copies
Marsilio Ficino Essays 2 copies
Sull'amore 1 copy
The Book of Life 1 copy
Epistolarum libri III et IV 1 copy
Tomo pri mo delle divine 1 copy
Kommentar til Platons Symposion, eller Om eros : Marsilio Ficino ; indledning, oversættelse og noter ved Leo Catana (2013) 1 copy
Teologia platonica. vol. 1 1 copy
Essays 1 copy
Commentary on Plotinus. 1 copy
Contro alla Peste. 1 copy
IL LUME DEL SOLE 1 copy
Associated Works
Philosophies of Art and Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics from Plato to Heidegger (1976) — Contributor — 398 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1433-10-19
- Date of death
- 1499-10-01
- Gender
- male
- Occupations
- philosopher
Humanist
physician
priest
translator - Nationality
- Italy
- Places of residence
- Firenze, Italy
- Associated Place (for map)
- Firenze, Italy
Members
Reviews
This a health text I read in Latin at the British Library; it includes some Salernitan medicine, proverbs which I studied for the paper I gave at the Villa Vergiliana Italian Medicine conference (largely on baths) at Cuma in 2001. In the intro Ficino talks of poets celebrating wine for health and salubrious outlook; when poets are melancholy, they've spent too much time studying, reasoning about the heavens.
Aristotle and Democritus agree men tend toward melancholy, though Democritus fought show more it with laughter. Avicenna disagrees that wine is salubrious: Quippe si vinum vl nimium vel nimis calidum vehemenque fuerit caput humoribus pessimisque fumis implebit. Too much wine, or too hot wine, both fill the head with the worst vapors and humors.
Shun melancholia--black bile, the humor responsible--by meat and sauce dijonaise (sinapis/white mustard).
For headache (dolor capitis): roses in oil-- “oleo rosaceo tunsis.”
For low energy ("phlegmatic" like Jeb Bush): aromatic roses "aromatico rosaceo vtere."
or upset stomach, honey mixed with cinnamon: "mixto melle rosaceo cum cinamo."
Sir Francis Bacon also wrote his own "Historia vitae et mortis" about two centuries after Ficino, observing in Intention #iv, "the things which conduce to health do not always conduce to longevity."
#xxv, "Of spirits retaining their youth": "The Turks use likewise [with opium] a kind of herb, called "coffee," which they dry, grind to a powder, and drink in warm water. They affirm that it gives no small vigor to their courage and their wit. Yet this to have in large quantities will excite and disturb the mind; which shows it to be of a similar nature to opiates."
#lxxviii: "Lettuce and violets and a glass of cold water at bedtime compse the spirits for sleep."
Bacon on hypnosis: "If voluntary trances--I know nothing certain…Of these make further inquiry."
On psychosoma, how "affectus mentis" effects "motus spiritus."
Nota bene: "Metus graviores vitam abbreviant." Great fears shorten life--though we may add, in the year of Trump, lengthen political careers.
Hope is the best for long life: "Admiratio, et levis contempliva," such as study of nature or rhetoric, yield longevity. Light contmplation, Bacon emphasizes, for subtle thought shortens life:
"inquisitio subtilis et acuta et acris vitam abbreviant; spiritum enim lassat et carpit." For such thought tires the spirit. show less
Aristotle and Democritus agree men tend toward melancholy, though Democritus fought show more it with laughter. Avicenna disagrees that wine is salubrious: Quippe si vinum vl nimium vel nimis calidum vehemenque fuerit caput humoribus pessimisque fumis implebit. Too much wine, or too hot wine, both fill the head with the worst vapors and humors.
Shun melancholia--black bile, the humor responsible--by meat and sauce dijonaise (sinapis/white mustard).
For headache (dolor capitis): roses in oil-- “oleo rosaceo tunsis.”
For low energy ("phlegmatic" like Jeb Bush): aromatic roses "aromatico rosaceo vtere."
or upset stomach, honey mixed with cinnamon: "mixto melle rosaceo cum cinamo."
Sir Francis Bacon also wrote his own "Historia vitae et mortis" about two centuries after Ficino, observing in Intention #iv, "the things which conduce to health do not always conduce to longevity."
#xxv, "Of spirits retaining their youth": "The Turks use likewise [with opium] a kind of herb, called "coffee," which they dry, grind to a powder, and drink in warm water. They affirm that it gives no small vigor to their courage and their wit. Yet this to have in large quantities will excite and disturb the mind; which shows it to be of a similar nature to opiates."
#lxxviii: "Lettuce and violets and a glass of cold water at bedtime compse the spirits for sleep."
Bacon on hypnosis: "If voluntary trances--I know nothing certain…Of these make further inquiry."
On psychosoma, how "affectus mentis" effects "motus spiritus."
Nota bene: "Metus graviores vitam abbreviant." Great fears shorten life--though we may add, in the year of Trump, lengthen political careers.
Hope is the best for long life: "Admiratio, et levis contempliva," such as study of nature or rhetoric, yield longevity. Light contmplation, Bacon emphasizes, for subtle thought shortens life:
"inquisitio subtilis et acuta et acris vitam abbreviant; spiritum enim lassat et carpit." For such thought tires the spirit. show less
Read in an attempt to keep my Latin in serviceable order.
Marsilii Ficini Florentini, insignis philosophi Platonici, medici, atque theologi clarissimi, opera, & quae hactenus extitere, & quae in lucem nunc primum prodiere omnia : omnium artium & scientiarum, maiorumq[ue] facultatum multifaria cognitione refertissima, in duos tomos digesta, & ab innumeris mendis hac postrema editione castigata: quorum seriem uersa pagella reperies : una cum gnomologia, hoc est, sententiarum ex iisdem operibus collectarum farragine copiosissima, in calce totius uoluminis adiecta by Marsilio Ficino
30 cm. (fol.)Preface by Adam Henricpetri.Date from colophon of t. 2.: "Anno salutis nostrae instauratae. M.D. LXXVI. mense Martio."Printer's device on t.p. and at end: Petri's device depicting Thor's hammer, held by hand issuing from clouds, striking fire on rock, head representing wind (cf. Roberts, W., Printer's marks, p. 166); initials.Vol. 2 has title: Tomus secundus, Marsilii Ficini, philosophi, Platonici, medici atque theologi omnium praestantissimi, operum ..."
BOOK OF LIFE
"The first translation ever into English of this underground classic of the Italian Renaissance. Marsilio Ficino's Book of life was once supressed for Ficino's approach to images, daemons, and planets in relation to health. The book in this fluent, amusing and exact translation by Charles Boer is a guide to food, drink, sleep, mood, sexuality, song and countless herbal and vegetable concoctions for maintaining the balance of soul, body and spirit. A fouding text of archetypal show more psychology, it has long been an important source for image-oriented thought. show less
"The first translation ever into English of this underground classic of the Italian Renaissance. Marsilio Ficino's Book of life was once supressed for Ficino's approach to images, daemons, and planets in relation to health. The book in this fluent, amusing and exact translation by Charles Boer is a guide to food, drink, sleep, mood, sexuality, song and countless herbal and vegetable concoctions for maintaining the balance of soul, body and spirit. A fouding text of archetypal show more psychology, it has long been an important source for image-oriented thought. show less
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 91
- Also by
- 7
- Members
- 1,044
- Popularity
- #24,665
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 15
- ISBNs
- 90
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 9