The philosopher who published Plato for Western thought praised him strangely. Marsilio Ficino commended his translation of the "Phaedrus" to his soul mate Iohannes Bessarion because in that dialogue ...Plato sought from god spiritual beauty.
Bruno's attempt to integrate the principles of Ficino's Neoplatonic metaphysics to the Thomistic "subalternatio scientiarum" led him to incorporate new techniques into his art of memory. His use of ...the wheel of memory in "De umbris idearum" produced various philosophical perspectives. Nevertheless, the theoretical basis of Bruno's philosophical system was his effort to address mathematics in a qualitative way. Analysis of Bruno's sources leads to an understanding of how he reconstructed and used them.
Gorringe argues that what draws theologians so powerfully to Botticelli is that he offers people a vision of the resurrection body, or, the body in paradise. The connection between Botticelli and ...Marsilio Ficino is noted.
Marsilio Ficino's philosophy altered the canon of beauty to include gracious laughter. This significant detail invented a positive, spiritual reflection of the human joy of participation in the ...cosmic circuit, toward the love of God. It transcended the negative, moralistic denunciation of laughter in the classical and Christian traditions. His contemporaries virtually ignored this genius.
Huntington considers the "poetic furor" in the work of several poets of the late 1500s, including Marsilio Ficino, George Chapman, Matthew Roydon, and Philip Sidney.
Nee enim tarn numeranda veterum
testimonia sunt quam ponderanda.
Poliziano,
Misc
. I. 39
There has never been much doubt among Renaissance scholars about the leading role played by Marsilio Ficino ...and Neoplatonic philosophy in the cultural life of the High Renaissance. From the time of his first biographer, Giovanni Corsi, Ficino's work of recovering and disseminating Platonism was held to be one of the great achievements of Medici patronage. The publication history of his translations and other writings during the early modern period attests to the widespread interest they aroused, not only among professional philosophers, but also among educated persons in general.
In the western world, Plotinus was only a name until 1492. None of his treatises had been translated during the Middle Ages, and the translations dating back to antiquity had been lost. He was not ...totally unknown, however, thanks to scholars like Firmicus Maternus, Saint Augustine, Macrobius, and to those parts of the works of Proclus translated in the thirteenth century by William of Moerbeke. But Plotinus's own writings remained completely unknown,and as Vespasiano da Bisticci observed in his
Vite
, “senza i libri non si poteva fare nulla” (“without the books, nothing can be done”). This fact was to change completely only with the publication by Marsilio Ficino of his Latin translation of the
Enneads.
Following the death of Marsilio Ficino on i October 1499 the
Ufficiali dello Studio
discussed whether they should attend his funeral in view of Ficino's ties with the Studio fiorentino, the ...University of Florence. These ties dated back to at least 1451 when Ficino was a student of logic at the Studio. He continued to study philosophy and medicine there throughout the 1450s, acquiring a good knowledge of Aristotle and Averroes. Ficino was still described as a student of philosophy in 1462. In 1466 he was amongst the witnesses to a doctorate granted by the Studio. Even though no more has been known of the ties between the young Ficino and the Studio, there has long been a debate over whether he taught there. This debate can now be settled. New documentary evidence proves that he was hired by the Ufficiali to lecture on philosophy in 1466.
Gall reviews Marsilio Ficino in Deutschland und Italien: Renaissance-Magie zwischen Wissenschaft und Literatur edited by Jutta Eming and Michael Dallapiazza.
