Platonic Theology, and: Platonic Theology, and: Platonic Theology (review)

Marsilio Ficino's influence in the early modern world was vast, reaching into the realms of literature and art, theology and philosophy, science and magic. Yet until now, his principal philosophical work, the Platonic Theology, has been unavailable in English. This gap is now being remedied by a new addition to the I Tatti Renaissance Library, with James Hankins serving as the primary editor of the Latin text and Michael Allen as the primary translator. A project at the University of Toronto (initiated by Patricia Vicari and with key work having been done on the Latin text by William Bowen and on early drafts of the English translation by John Warden) provided the foundation on which Hankins and Allen have built. Volumes one through four (under review here) have now been published; a fifth and sixth volume (the latter of which will contain comprehensive indices and concordances) are set to appear soon.

Allen and Hankins have carried out a magnificent achievement, producing the definitive edition and English translation for our time. The only full modern edition of the Latin text was that of Raymond Marcel, published with an accompanying French translation (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1964-70). Marcel used the two main independent witnesses of the Platonic Theology: the editio princeps printed in Florence in 1482 by Miscomini and corrected by Ficino, and the manuscript dedication copy, MS Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Plut. LXXXIII, 10. Marcel's edition was a great advance over what had existed previously, since most scholars had to use the Basel, 1576 Opera Omnia of Ficino to consult the text. Still, as time has gone by scholars have noted in Marcel's edition a significant number of readings that could be bettered, unnecessary conjectures and emendations, and general improvements that were possible.

As editor, Hankins has adopted a streamlined classicizing orthography for the text: classical spelling for diphthongs, "intellego/intellegentia" for "intelligo/intelligentia," and so on; and he has taken a minimalist approach, emending rarely, even as he corrects many of Marcel's readings. A few examples from volume one will make the point. On page 10, from the proem dedicated to Lorenzo the Magnificent, we find a passage that runs as follows: "ideoque universum opus Platonicam Theologiam de immortalitate animorum inscribendum esse censui" (translated by Allen as "That is why I have deemed it appropriate to entitle the whole work The Platonic Theology: On the Immortality of the Soul"). In his text, Marcel presented the first person perfect indicative "censui" ("I have deemed") as the third person "censuit" (which makes less sense, given the string of first person verbs in the section in which this verb appears). At book 1.2, page 24, Ficino makes the argument that body cannot be said to act of its own nature; as Ficino introduces the element "qualitas" (quality) into the discussion — as a key element of his ontological hierarchy — the following sentence occurs: "Sic beneficio qualitatis, praesertim in angustum coactae, provenit actio" (Allen: "Thus action arises thanks to quality, especially when quality is concentrated"). Here, for "coactae," Marcel had read...