Marsilio Ficino and the Soul: Doctrinal and Argumentative Remarks Regarding His Use of the Elements of Physics and the Elements of Theology

The depth and extent of Ficino’s reception and use of Proclus has already attracted much scholarly attention. The present paper builds on and tries to enrich these results, focusing specifically on Ficino’s reception of Proclus’ Elements of Physics and Elements of Theology. In the first part I discuss a marginal annotation of Ficino, in which he makes use of arguments about the circular motion of the soul from the Elements of Physics. I provide some clarifications about the annotated text (of Plotinus) and propose one additional possible echo of the Elements of Physics in Ficino’s Platonic Theology and its arguments about the immortality of the soul. The second part of the paper turns to the link between the Elements of Theology and Ficino’s Platonic Theology. Together with some further doctrinal borrowings I suggest that also the structure of the two works bears important affinities. The soul is a central case in point. To ground this claim, I compare specific sections of the two texts. Also, I selectively examine Ficino’s commentary on the Philebus, which is prior to the Platonic Theology and is strongly influenced by the early theorems of the Elements of Theology. Overall, the paper wishes to shed further light on Ficino’s multiform (and not yet fully unveiled) appropriation of Proclus.