The Platonic Theology is a visionary work and the philosophical masterpiece of Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), the Florentine scholar-philosopher-magus who was largely responsible for the Renaissance revival of Plato. A student of the Neoplatonic schools of Plotinus and Proclus, he was committed to reconciling Platonism with Christianity, in the hope that such a reconciliation would initiate a spiritual revival and return of the golden age. His Platonic evangelizing was eminently successful and widely influential, and his Platonic Theology, translated into English for the first time in this edition, is one of the keys to understanding the art, thought, culture, and spirituality of the Renaissance.

This sixth and final volume of the I Tatti Renaissance Library edition includes comprehensive indexes to the whole work.

About the Author
Michael J. B. Allen is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles. James Hankins is Professor of History at Harvard University and founder and General Editor of the I Tatti Renaissance Library. He is the author of Virtue Politics: Soulcraft and Statecraft in Renaissance Italy, winner of the Marraro Prize and a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year, and Plato in the Italian Renaissance; and editor of The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Philosophy. Widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on Renaissance philosophy and political thought, he is also a Corresponding Member of the British Academy.

Reviews
The I Tatti project represents a major contribution to Renaissance studies, as it becomes increasingly necessary to produce reliable editions and translations of works of the Italian Renaissance written in Latin. By providing an accurate text and a readable translation in an elegant yet affordable format, this [edition] will benefit both scholars and students, who might not be familiar with Ficino's sometimes difficult and elliptical Latin. It will interest not only those who are working on Ficino and Italian humanism but also anyone who is concerned with the history of Platonism and Neoplatonism. No doubt this edition will stimulate further studies on Ficino's Platonic Theology, which will in turn enlighten significant aspects of Ficino's thought, identify new sources and provide a comprehensive exegesis of this fundamental text. -- Maude Vanhaelen * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
Ficino set out to show that the ancient Neoplatonic philosophy embodied a "gentile theological tradition," one that complemented the Mosaic revelation to the Jews and prepared its devotees for the final truths of Christianity. Ficino worked in full knowledge of the internal complications of Neoplatonism. He wrote and argued in styles that ranged from the logical and synthetic to the poetic and evocative, as he struggled to find ways to prove that the universe was orderly and governed by a Creator and to lay out the place within it of the immortal human soul. -- Anthony T. Grafton * New York Review of Books *
Allen's translation of Ficino's work is a crucial contribution to Renaissance studies. -- Daniel B. Gallagher * Aestimatio *



Book Information
ISBN 9780674019867
Author Marsilio Ficino
Format Hardback
Page Count 432
Imprint Harvard University Press
Publisher Harvard University Press