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FICINO, MARSILIO (1433-1499)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 319 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FICINO, MARSILIO (1433-1499) , See also:Italian philosopher and writer, was See also:born at Figline, in the upper See also:Arno valley, in the See also:year 1433. His See also:father, a physician of some See also:eminence, settled in See also:Florence, and attached himself to the See also:person of Cosimo de' See also:Medici. Here the See also:young Marsilio received his elementary See also:education in See also:grammar and Latin literature at the high school or studio pubblico. While still a boy, he showed promise of rare See also:literary gifts, and distinguished himself by his facility in the acquisition of knowledge. Not only literature, but the See also:physical sciences, as then taught, had a See also:charm for him; and he is said to have made considerable progress in See also:medicine under the tuition of his father. He was of a tranquil temperament, sensitive to See also:music and See also:poetry, and debarred by weak See also:health from joining in the more active pleasures of his See also:fellow-students. When he had attained the See also:age of eighteen or nineteen years, Cosimo received him into his See also:household, and determined to make use of his rare disposition for scholarship in the development of a See also:long-cherished project. During the session of the See also:council for the See also:union of the See also:Greek and Latin churches at Florence in 1439, Cosimo had made acquaintance with Gemistos Plethon, the Neo-Platonic See also:sage of Mistra, whose discourses upon See also:Plata and the Alexandrian mystics so fascinated the learned society of Florence that they named him the second See also:Plato. It had been the See also:dream of this See also:man's whole See also:life to supersede both forms of See also:Christianity by a semi-See also:pagan See also:theosophy deduced from the writings of the later Pythagoreans and Platonists. When, therefore, he perceived the impression he had made upon the first See also:citizen of Florence, Gemistos suggested that the See also:capital of See also:modern culture would be a See also:fit See also:place for the resuscitation of the once so famous See also:Academy of See also:Athens. Cosimo took this hint. The second See also:half of the 15th See also:century was destined to be the age of See also:academies in See also:Italy, and the regnant See also:passion for antiquity satisfied itself with any See also:imitation, however See also:grotesque, of Greek or See also:Roman institutions.

In See also:

order to found his new academy upon a See also:firm basis Cosimo resolved not only to assemble men of letters for the purpose of Platonic disputation at certain See also:regular intervals, but also to appoint a hierophant and See also:official expositor of Platonic See also:doctrine. He hoped by these means to give a certain stability to his projected institution, and to avoid the superficiality of See also:mere See also:enthusiasm. The See also:plan was See also:good; and with the rare See also:instinct for See also:character which distinguished him, he made choice of the right man for his purpose in the young Marsilio. Before he had begun to learn Greek, Marsilio entered upon the task of studying and elucidating Plato. It is known that at this See also:early See also:period of his life, while he was yet a novice, he wrote voluminous See also:treatises on the See also:great philosopher, which he after-wards, however, gave to the flames. In the year 1459 See also:John Argyropoulos was lecturing on the Greek See also:language and literature at Florence, and Marsilio became his See also:pupil. He was then about twenty-three years of age. Seven years later he See also:felt himself a sufficiently ripe Greek See also:scholar to begin the See also:translation of Plato, by which his name is famous in the See also:history of scholarship, and which is still the best translation of that author Italy can boast. The See also:MSS. on which he worked were supplied by his See also:patron Cosimo de' Medici and by Amerigo Benci. While the translation was still in progress Ficino from See also:time to time, submitted its pages to the scholars, Angelo Poliziano, Cristoforo Landino, Demetrios Chalchondylas and others; and since these men were all members of the Platonic Academy, there can be no doubt that the discussions raised upon the See also:text and Latin version greatly served to promote the purpose of Cosimo's See also:foundation. At last the See also:book appeared in 1482, the expenses of the See also:press being defrayed by the See also:noble Florentine, Filippo Valori. About the same time Marsilio completed and published his See also:treatise on the Platonic doctrine of See also:immortality (Theologia Platonica de immortalitate animae), the See also:work by which his claims to take See also:rank as a philosopher must be estimated.

This was shortly followed by the translation of See also:

Plotinus into Latin, and by a voluminous commentary, the former finished in 1486, the latter in 1491, and both published at the cost of Lorenzo de' Medici just one See also:month after his See also:death. As a supplement to these labours in the See also:field of Platonic and Alexandrian See also:philosophy, Marsilio next devoted his energies to the translation of Di6nysius the Areopagite, whose work on the See also:celestial See also:hierarchy, though recognized as See also:spurious by the Neapolitan humanist, Lorenzo See also:Valla, had supreme attraction for the mystic and uncritical See also:intellect of Ficino. It is not easy to value the services of Marsilio Ficino at their proper See also:worth. As a philosopher, he can advance no claim to originality, his laborious treatise on Platonic See also:theology being little better than a See also:mass of See also:ill-digested erudition. As a scholar, he failed to recognize the distinctions between different periods of antiquity and various See also:schools of thought. As an exponent of Plato he suffered from the fatal See also:error of confounding Plato with the later Platonists. It is true that in this respect he did not differ widely from the mass of his contemporaries. Lorenzo Valla and Angelo Poliziano, almost alone among the scholars of that age, showed a true See also:critical See also:perception. For the See also:rest, it was enough that an author should be See also:ancient to secure their admiration. The whole of antiquity seemed See also:precious in the eyes of its discoverers; and even a thinker so acute as See also:Pico di See also:Mirandola dreamed of the possibility of extracting the essence of philosophical truth by indiscriminate See also:collation of the most divergent doctrines. Ficino was, moreover, a firm believer in planetary influences. He could not See also:separate his philosophical from his astrological studies, and caught eagerly at any fragment of antiquity which seemed to support his cherished delusions.

It may here be incidentally mentioned that this superstition brought him into trouble with the Roman See also:

Church. In 1489 he was accused of magic before See also:Pope See also:Innocent VIII., and had to secure the good offices of See also:Francesco See also:Soderini, Ermolao See also:Barbaro, and the See also:archbishop Rinaldo See also:Orsini, in order to purge himself of a most perilous imputation. What Ficino achieved of really solid, was his translation. The value of that work cannot be denied; the impulse which it gave to Platonic studies in Italy, and through them to the formation of the new philosophy in See also:Europe, is indisputable. Ficino differed from the See also:majority of his contemporaries in this that, while he felt the See also:influence of antiquity no less strongly than they did, he never lost his faith in Christianity, or contaminated his morals by contact with paganism. For him, as for See also:Petrarch, St See also:Augustine was the See also:model of a See also:Christian student. The See also:cardinal point of his doctrine was the identity of See also:religion and philosophy. He held that philosophy consists in the study of truth and See also:wisdom, and that See also:God alone is truth and wisdom,—so that philosophy is but religion, and true religion is genuine philosophy. Religion, indeed, is See also:common to all men, but its pure See also:form is that revealed through See also:Christ; and the teaching of Christ is sufficient to a man in all circumstances of life. Yet it cannot be expected that every man should accept the faith without reasoning; and here Ficino found a place for See also:Platonism. He maintained that the Platonic doctrine was providentially made to harmonize with Christianity, in order that by its means speculative intellects might be led to Christ. The transition from this point of view to an almost superstitious See also:adoration of Plato was natural; and Ficino, we know, joined in the See also:hymns and celebrations with which the Florentine Academy honoured their great See also:master on the See also:day of his See also:birth and death.

Those famous festivals in which Lorenzo de' Medici delighted had indeed a pagan See also:

tone appropriate to the sentiment of the See also:Renaissance; nor were all the worshippers of the Athenian sage so true to Christianity as his devoted student. Of Ficino's See also:personal life there is but little to be said. In order that he might have leisure for uninterrupted study, Cosimo de' Medici gave him a See also:house near S. Maria Nuova in Florence, and a little See also:farm at Montevecchio, not far from the See also:villa of Careggi. Ficino, like nearly all the scholars of that age in Italy, delighted in See also:country See also:lie. At Montevecchio he lived contentedly among his books, in the neighbourhood of his two See also:friends, Pico at Querceto, and Poliziano at See also:Fiesole, See also:cheering,his solitude by playing on the See also:lute, and corresponding with the most illustrious men of Italy. His letters, extending over the years 1474-1494, have been published, both separately and in his collected See also:works. From these it may be gathered that nearly every living scholar of See also:note was included in the See also:list of his friends, and that the subjects which interested him were by no means confined to his Platonic sudies. As instances of his See also:close intimacy with illustrious Florentine families, it may be mentioned that he held the young Francesco See also:Guicciardini at the See also:font, and that he helped to See also:cast the horoscope of the Casa See also:Strozzi in the Via Tornabuoni. At the age of See also:forty Ficino took orders, and was honoured with a canonry of S. Lorenzo. He was henceforth assiduous in the performance of his duties, See also:preaching in his cure of Novoli, and also in the See also:cathedral and the church of the Angeli at Florence.

He used to say that no man was better than a good See also:

priest, and none worse than a See also:bad one. His life corresponded in all points to his principles. It was the life of a sincere Christian and a real sage,—of one who found the best fruits of philosophy in the practice of the Christian virtues. A more amiable and a more harmless man never lived; and this was much in that age of discordant passions and lawless See also:licence. In spite of his weak health, he was indefatigably industrious. His tastes were of the simplest; and while scholars like See also:Filelfo were See also:intent on extracting See also:money from their patrons by flattery and threats, he remained so poor that he owed the publication of all his many works to private munificence. For his old patrons of the house of Medici Ficino always cherished sentiments of the liveliest gratitude. Cosimo he called his second father, saying that Ficino had given him life, but Cosimo new birth,—the one had devoted him to See also:Galen, the other to the divine Plato,—the one was physician of the See also:body, the other of the soul. With Lorenzo he lived on terms of See also:familiar, affectionate, almost parental intimacy. He had seen the young See also:prince grow up in the See also:palace of the Via Larga, and had helped in the development of his rare intellect. In later years he did not shrink from uttering a word of warning and See also:advice, when he thought that the master of the Florentine See also:republic was too much inclined to yield to See also:pleasure. A characteristic See also:proof of his See also:attachment to the house of Medici was furnished by a yearly See also:custom which he practised at his farm at Montevecchio.

He used to invite the contadini who had served Cosimo to a banquet on the day of See also:

Saints Cosimo and Damiano (the patron saints of the Medici), and entertained them with music and singing. This See also:affection was amply returned. Cosimo employed almost the last See also:hours of his life in listening to Ficino's See also:reading of a treatise on the highest good; while Lorenzo, in a poem on true happiness, described him as the See also:mirror of the See also:world, the nursling of sacred See also:muses, the harmonizer of wisdom and beauty in See also:complete See also:accord. Ficino died at Florence in 1499. Besides the works already noticed, Ficino composed a treatise on the Christian religion, which was first given to the world in 1476, a translation into Italian of See also:Dante's De monarchia, a life of Plato, and numerous essays on ethical and semi-philosophical subjects. Vigour of reasoning and originality of view were not his characteristics as a writer; nor will the student who has raked these dust-heaps- of See also:miscellaneous learning and old-fashioned See also:mysticism discover more than a few sentences of genuine enthusiasm and See also:simple-hearted aspiration to repay his trouble and See also:reward his See also:patience. Only in familiar letters, prolegomena, and prefaces do we find the man Ficino, and learn to know his thoughts and sentiments unclouded by a mist of citations; these See also:minor compositions have therefore a certain permanent value, and will continually be studied for the See also:light they throw upon the learned circle gathered See also:round Lorenzo in the See also:golden age of See also:humanism. The student may be referred for further See also:information to the following works: Marsilii Ficini See also:opera (Basileae, 1576); Marsilii Ficini vita, auctore Corsio (ed. See also:Bandini, See also:Pisa, 1771) ; See also:Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de' Medici; Pasquale See also:Villari, La Storia di See also:Girolamo See also:Savonarola (Firenze, Le See also:Monnier, 1859) ; Von See also:Reumont, Lorenzo de' Medici (See also:Leipzig, 1874). (J. A.

End of Article: FICINO, MARSILIO (1433-1499)

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