Marsilio Ficino, (born October 19, 1433, Figline, republic of Florence [Italy]—died October 1, 1499, Careggi, near Florence), Italian philosopher, theologian, and linguist whose translations and commentaries on the writings of Plato and other classical Greek authors generated the Florentine Platonist Renaissance that …

What was Marsilio Ficino known for?

Marsilio Ficino, (born October 19, 1433, Figline, republic of Florence [Italy]—died October 1, 1499, Careggi, near Florence), Italian philosopher, theologian, and linguist whose translations and commentaries on the writings of Plato and other classical Greek authors generated the Florentine Platonist Renaissance that …

What did Ficino believe?

The Ancient Theology and Pious Philosophy The influences of Platonism, Neoplatonism, and Scholasticism are particularly prominent. Like many of his contemporaries, Ficino believed that Hermes Trismegistus was an ancient Egyptian theologian and philosopher of sacred and divine wisdom.

What Greek philosopher did Marsilio Ficino translate into Latin?

Italian scholar Marsilio Ficino became famous for his translations of the works of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. He was also a prominent philosopher in his own right, known for his attempts to merge Plato’s ideas with Christian theology*.

What is the difference between neoplatonism and Platonism?

Platonism is characterized by its method of abstracting the finite world of Forms (humans, animals, objects) from the infinite world of the Ideal, or One. Neoplatonism, on the other hand, seeks to locate the One, or God in Christian Neoplatonism, in the finite world and human experience.

What is Neoplatonic good?

Neoplatonic philosophy is a strict form of principle-monism that strives to understand everything on the basis of a single cause that they considered divine, and indiscriminately referred to as “the First”, “the One”, or “the Good”.

Which family rose to power in the fourteenth century and ruled Florence for four generations?

The Medici family, also known as the House of Medici ruled Florence through most of the Renaissance period. The Medici family originally were of Tuscan origin that immigrated to Florence. The family rose to power through commerce and banking thus becoming one of the most important and powerful houses in Florence.

What is the Neoplatonic ideal?

Neo-Platonism was a philosophical movement inaugurated by Plotinus (AD 204/5 – 270), which reinterpreted the ideas of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It argued that the world which we experience is only a copy of an ideal reality which lies beyond the material world.

Which of the philosophers influenced Ficino’s arguments for the immortality of the soul?

Audience and influence In agreement with Plato, in the work Ficino argued for the immortality of the soul, and the Fifth Council of the Lateran was probably influenced by this in its decree Apostolici regiminis against Christian mortalism.

Was St Augustine a Neoplatonism?

In his epistemology Augustine was Neoplatonic, especially in the subjectivity of his doctrine of illumination—in its insistence that in spite of the fact that God is exterior to humans, human minds are aware of him because of his direct action on them (expressed in terms of the shining of his light on the mind, or …

Is Platonism a humanist?

Humanism is one of the most distinctive aspects of the Renaissance. The humanists turned to classical letters, paying particular deference to the Platonic tradition. In the context of humanism, Platonism was not always uniformly understood, nor interpreted cohesively throughout the Renaissance.

What came before Neoplatonism?

Neoplatonism synthesized ideas from earlier philosophical and religious traditions, namely Platonism, Aristotelianism, and Stoicism, and it is that synthesis that explains the central difference between Plato and neoplatonism.

Was Medici family real?

Medici family, French Médicis, Italian bourgeois family that ruled Florence and, later, Tuscany during most of the period from 1434 to 1737, except for two brief intervals (from 1494 to 1512 and from 1527 to 1530).

What is the Platonic corpus according to Ficino?

Ficino considered the Platonic corpus a treasury of wisdom, filled with different subject matters but always, when rightly interpreted, leading one to the divine. In the same preface, he writes of Plato that “whatever subject he deals with, he quickly brings it round, in a spirit of utmost piety, to the contemplation and worship of God.”

What does Ficino mean by the immortality of the human soul?

The immortality of the human soul represented Ficino’s main preoccupation, fearing as he did the potential loss of belief among intellectual elites.

Why is Ficino a humble philosopher?

The canon-making historian of philosophy Johann Jakob Brucker wrote in the 1740s that Ficino “obtained a humble rank” because, “captivated by the trifles of later Platonists, he feigns, re-feigns, and changes Plato” (Brucker, 4.1: 55).

What did Ficino read to Cosimo de Medici?

In 1464, when Cosimo de’ Medici was in the final stages of his life, Ficino read to him his new translations of certain Platonic dialogues (some of which are now considered spurious).