Ficino, Marsilio (1433–1499)

Italian philosopher. He created an influential synthesis of Platonism and medieval theology. He assigned to the human soul the central place in the hierarchy of the universe, and he believed that the soul ascended towards God through contemplation. His doctrine of platonic love became one of the most popular concepts of later Renaissance literature.

Ficino founded a Platonic Academy in Florence in 1462. He was ordained a priest in 1473 and retired in 1494. He translated both Plato and Plotinus, the founder of neo-Platonism, into Latin, thus becoming one of the principal channels of their diffusion through Renaissance Europe. His main work is Theologica Platonica de immortalitate animae/Platonic Theology Concerning the Immortality of the Soul (1482).

Patronized by the ruling Medici family, Ficino had great influence upon its cultural circle. The poet Politian and the painter Sandro Botticelli are among those whose work reflects the philosophy of beauty he had derived from his study of Plato.