Marsilio Ficino was a Florentine philosopher, translator, and commentator. He is widely recognized by historians of philosophy today for his most substantial philosophical treatise, the Platonic Theology (1482). This work is an encyclopedic defense of the immortality of the soul, and in it he argues for the inherent dignity of humanity on metaphysical grounds. The book had a direct influence on the content and direction of philosophy in subsequent centuries. Ficino was also largely responsible for the revival of Platonism in the Renaissance. He translated the writings of Plato, Plotinus, and the Hermetic corpus from Greek into Latin. At the time, these texts were largely inaccessible to intellectuals in the West, and Ficino …
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Citation: Snyder, James G. . "Marsilio Ficino". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 December 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1517, accessed 21 November 2024.]
