Platonic Theology, Volume 3: Books IX-XI (I Tatti Renaissance Library) [Hardcover]

Marsilio Ficino (Author), James Hankins (Editor), Michael J. B. Allen (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674010655 | ISBN-13: 978-0674010659 | Publication Date: June 1, 2003 | Edition: 1ST

The "Platonic Theology" is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. A student of the Neoplatonic schools of Plotinus and Proclus, he was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his "Platonic Theology" is one of the keys of understanding the art, thought, culture and spirituality of the Renaissance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Loeb Classical Library...has been of incalculable benefit to generations of scholars...It seems certain that the I Tatti Renaissance Library will serve a similar purpose for Renaissance Latin texts, and that, in addition to its obvious academic value, it will facilitate a broadening base of participation in Renaissance Studies...These books are to be lauded not only for their principles of inclusivity and accessibility, and for their rigorous scholarship, but also for their look and feel. Everything about them is attractive: the blue of their dust jackets and cloth covers, the restrained and elegant design, the clarity of the typesetting, the quality of the paper, and not least the sensible price. This is a new set of texts well worth collecting.
--Kate Lowe (Times Literary Supplement 20061005)

An aristocratic devotion to our culture continues to manifest itself even today in the most prestigious centers of study and thought. One has merely to look at the very recent (begun in 2001), rigorous and elegant humanistic series of Harvard University, with the original Latin text, English translation, introduction and notes.
--Vittore Branca (Il Sole 24 Ore )

Ficino set out to show that the ancient Neoplatonic philosophy embodied a "gentile theological tradition," one that complemented the Mosaic revelation to the Jews and prepared its devotees for the final truths of Christianity. Ficino worked in full knowledge of the internal complications of Neoplatonism. He wrote and argued in styles that ranged from the logical and synthetic to the poetic and evocative, as he struggled to find ways to prove that the universe was orderly and governed by a Creator and to lay out the place within it of the immortal human soul.
--Anthony T. Grafton (New York Review of Books )

Language Notes

Text: English, Latin (translation)
Original Language: Latin

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1ST edition (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674010655
• ISBN-13: 978-0674010659
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #719,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Volume Three: The Supremacy of the Soul in the World of Matter, June 26, 2008

By 

Johannes Platonicus (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Platonic Theology, Volume 3: Books IX-XI (I Tatti Renaissance Library) (Hardcover)

The third of this magnificent six volume set proceeds with the dominant theme of the work, which aims to furnish proofs of the soul's immortality through a systemization of the principal ideas belonging to the Platonic tradition [yet paradoxically the work is also highly syncretic, blending elements of Hermetism, Scripture, Eastern mysticism and Medieval Aristotelianism]. Now the crux of this volume then, for one, is that the soul is prior to matter in the hierarchy of being, making it intrinsically superior to the material order. And further, the soul is enjoined to universal Divine Soul and thus it is indivisible, indestructible and eternal by nature. Moreover, while the soul is enmeshed in matter it is the dominant active agent, the ruler of the body: the soul acts in and outside of matter freely but the soul is never is acted upon by matter. Even when the body is said to adversely affect the soul--it is merely a defect in the soul's will-power not a force native to body. And finally, the soul is equipped to understand the true rational principles [Ideas] and their Forms, by way of discursive reasoning as opposed to carnal sense perception. This, it is hoped, will shed some light on some of the main points Ficino demonstrates in his elaborate thesis affirming the soul's immortality. It is recommended that the entire set be purchased and that it be read in moderation due to the density, complexity and magnitude of philosophical ideas and arguments layered throughout this magnificent work. For more details on the Platonic Theology see the *reviews posted for volumes one, two and five.