Synopses & Reviews
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, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.
This is the fifth of a projected six volumes.
Review
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
Review
As in previous volumes, Allen has rendered an elegant translation of an often daunting neo-Latin text. New York Review of Books
Review
The English translation of volume 5 seems to have captured the sense of the Latin well...Although Neoplatonic philosophy will never be easy reading, this translation and the accompanying Latin text should be helpful to any student of Florentine Neoplatonism. Daniel Galagher - Classical Bulletin
About the Author
Michael J. B. Allen is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.James Hankins is Professor of History, Harvard University. He is the General Editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library.
Table of Contents
Prefatory Note
Book XV
Book XVI
Notes to the Text
Notes to the Translation
Bibliography
Index