Marsilio Ficino was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance.
10 Facts About Marsilio Ficino
2.
Marsilio Ficino was an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with the major academics of his day, and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin.
3.
Marsilio Ficino's father, Diotifeci d'Agnolo, was a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, who took the young man into his household and became the lifelong patron of Marsilio, who was made tutor to his grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici.
4.
In 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on Greek language and literature at Florence, and Ficino became his pupil.
5.
Marsilio Ficino produced a translation of a collection of Hellenistic Greek documents found by Leonardo da Pistoia later called Hermetica, and the writings of many of the Neoplatonists, including Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Plotinus.
6.
The latter was considered by Marsilio Ficino to be his successor as the head of the Florentine Platonic Academy.
7.
In 1474 Marsilio Ficino completed his treatise on the immortality of the soul, Theologia Platonica de immortalitate animae and De Christiana Religione, a history of religions and defense of Christianity.
8.
Probably due to early influences from his father, Diotifeci, who was a doctor to Cosimo de' Medici, Marsilio Ficino published Latin and Italian treatises on medical subjects such as Consiglio contro la pestilenza and De vita libri tres.
9.
Notably, Marsilio Ficino coined the term Platonic love, which first appeared in his letter to Alamanno Donati in 1476.
10.
In 1492, Marsilio Ficino published Epistulae, which contained Platonic love letters, written in Latin, to his academic colleague and life-long friend, Giovanni Cavalcanti, concerning the nature of Platonic love.