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Marsilio Ficino’s Critique of the Lucretian Alternative

Marsilio Ficino’s Critique of the Lucretian Alternative James G. Snyder INTRODUCTION Marsilio Ficino is perhaps most widely remembered by historians of philosophy today as a fifteenth-century Platonist and Hermeticist who advocated the soul's flight from the sordid world of matter and body. Ficino's major contributions to philosophy include his Latin translations of Plato and Plotinus, as well as his voluminous and encyclopedic Platonic Theology, where he argues that the immortal soul occupies a privileged midpoint between God and inchoate prime matter. It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that Ficino, for a time in his early twenties, was drawn to the Roman poet Lucretius, who believed that most people are plagued by the superstitions of religiously-minded fable mongers. During this time Ficino composed a short commentary on Lucretius' didactic Epicurean poem, On the Nature of Things. In 1417 one of the last surviving manuscript copies of this poem was found in a German monastery by the humanist Poggio Bracciolini after several centuries of dormancy.1 Also, in an early treatise on pleasure, Ficino See Michael D. Reeve, ``The Italian Tradition of Lucretius Revisited,'' Aevum 79 (2005): 115­64; and ``The Italian Tradition of Lucretius,'' Italia mediovale e umanistica 23 (1980): 27­48; A. C. Clark, ``The Literary http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the History of Ideas University of Pennsylvania Press

Marsilio Ficino’s Critique of the Lucretian Alternative

Journal of the History of Ideas , Volume 72 (2) – Apr 21, 2011

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Publisher
University of Pennsylvania Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 Journal of the History of Ideas
ISSN
1086-3222
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Abstract

James G. Snyder INTRODUCTION Marsilio Ficino is perhaps most widely remembered by historians of philosophy today as a fifteenth-century Platonist and Hermeticist who advocated the soul's flight from the sordid world of matter and body. Ficino's major contributions to philosophy include his Latin translations of Plato and Plotinus, as well as his voluminous and encyclopedic Platonic Theology, where he argues that the immortal soul occupies a privileged midpoint between God and inchoate prime matter. It therefore comes as a surprise to learn that Ficino, for a time in his early twenties, was drawn to the Roman poet Lucretius, who believed that most people are plagued by the superstitions of religiously-minded fable mongers. During this time Ficino composed a short commentary on Lucretius' didactic Epicurean poem, On the Nature of Things. In 1417 one of the last surviving manuscript copies of this poem was found in a German monastery by the humanist Poggio Bracciolini after several centuries of dormancy.1 Also, in an early treatise on pleasure, Ficino See Michael D. Reeve, ``The Italian Tradition of Lucretius Revisited,'' Aevum 79 (2005): 115­64; and ``The Italian Tradition of Lucretius,'' Italia mediovale e umanistica 23 (1980): 27­48; A. C. Clark, ``The Literary

Journal

Journal of the History of IdeasUniversity of Pennsylvania Press

Published: Apr 21, 2011

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