Marsilio Ficino

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Italian philosopher and theologian, whose translations of and commentary on the works of Plato contributed to the Platonic revival during the Renaissance. Ficino was born at Figline, near Florence. After studying medicine and philosophy and preparing for the priesthood, he undertook to learn Greek. Encouraged by the Italian banker and statesman Cosimo de' Medici—particularly by his gift of a villa outside Florence—Ficino set up the Platonic Academy and made the first complete translation of Plato's writings into Latin (1463-1469). He later translated works by the Roman philosopher Plotinus and other Neoplatonic writers.

Following his ordination as a priest in 1473, Ficino became a canon of the Cathedral of Florence. His original work Theologica Platonica (1482), a study of the immortality of the human soul, demonstrates Ficino's knowledge of St Thomas Aquinas; it also takes account of the Plotinian cosmology and of the influence of the stars on human lives. His commentary on Plato's Symposium introduced the notion of platonic love. This concept of a special friendship based on the love of God was seminal in the literature of the later Renaissance.