THE LIFE OF PLATO BY MARSILIO Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), the primary figure in the Florentine Renaissance's revival of Plato..

translated. Distant nations honor him here: for he himself knew the divine life and showed it to others. The third opinion is that of man. Phoebus Apollo fathered Aesculapius and Plato, so that the former might heal bodies, and the latter might heal souls. Furthermore, Mithridates, King of the Persians, placed a statue of Plato in the Academy with this inscription: "Mithridates, son of Rhodobates, a Persian, dedicated this image of Plato to the Muses, a work by Silanion." From all these things, Plato achieved such status that the Greeks called Aristotle "daemonic" original: "dæmoniū"; meaning inspired or possessing superhuman intellect, but Plato they called "divine." This is clearly because the former was greatest in human life and natural science, while the latter devoted himself most powerfully to the divine in both his knowledge and his life.

A DEFENSE OF PLATO’S CHARACTER.

A decorative woodcut initial 'B' featuring intricate floral or foliate patterns within a square frame. I shall now conclude my words well if I add a few more things. There are certain common versifiers who unworthily usurp the name of poets for themselves. These men, provoked as much by their difference in character as by the malice of envy, most shamelessly mock all the best people. To them, a certain extreme license is granted against the good rather than the wicked. Such petty poets once did not hesitate to bite at the divine Plato (judged by the Greeks to be the son of Apollo) and Socrates (judged by Apollo to be the wisest of the Greeks). Diogenes Laertius greatly detests their impiety. And as he himself declares, Aristippus of Cyrene—a most wicked man and an adversary of all the best people of his time—increased the ridiculous insults of the comic poets. Just as he slandered many other most modest and learned men with a certain fabricated history, so he also slandered his teacher Socrates and his fellow disciples Xenophon and Plato. He forged certain lewd poems about courtesans and boys in their names, evidently so that he might obtain a freer license for his own sinning by the false example of great philosophers. But Aristotle, to whom truth was a greater friend than even Plato A reference to the famous saying "Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas.", could not endure such falsehoods against a holy man. For in his Elegies to Eudemus, he sang those things about Plato which we mentioned above, granting him this highest tribute: that profane men ought not only to refrain from slandering Plato in any way, but they should not even dare to speak his holy name with a profane mouth under the pretext of praise. Nor was he content with the Elegy; but also, as Olympiodorus records, he composed a famous oration in praise of Plato. Therefore, let the dogs of hell be silent among those above, and let them accompany Cerberus with their barking among those below. But let us venerate the life and wisdom of Plato, most highly approved by the judgment of the wise; and let us cry out freely together with Apuleius of Madaura: "We of the Platonic family know nothing except what is festive, joyful, celestial, and sublime."

THE END OF THE LIFE OF PLATO.

¶ A table of the books of Plato translated by Marsilio Ficino the Florentine. Likewise included are partly arguments summaries and partly commentaries composed by the same Marsilio on those same books.


1	Hipparchus, on the desire for gain.	Folio I.	19	Hippias Minor, on lying.	Folio CVII.
2	The book on philosophy, or The Lovers.	II.	20	Charmides, on temperance.	CXI.
3	Theages, on wisdom.	IIII.	21	Laches, on courage.	CXVI.
4	Meno, on virtue.	VI.	22	Clitophon, an exhortation.	CXX.
5	Alcibiades I, on the nature of man.	XI.	23	Cratylus, on the correct naming of things.	CXXIII.
6	Alcibiades II, on prayer.	XVII.	24	Gorgias, on Rhetoric.	CXXXV.
7	Minos, on law.	XIX.	25	Plato’s Symposium, on love.	CLXX.
8	Euthyphro, on holiness.	XXI.	26	Phaedrus, on beauty.	CLXXIX.
9	Parmenides, on the One principle of things.	XXIIII.	27	The Apology of Socrates.	CXC.
10	Philebus, on the highest human good.	XXXII.	28	Crito, on what must be done.	CXCVI.
11	Hippias Major, on beauty.	XLIII.	29	Phaedo, on the soul.	CXCIV.
12	Lysis, on friendship.	XLVIII.	30	Menexenus, a funeral oration.	CCXI.
13	Theaetetus, on knowledge.	LIIII.	31	Ten books on the Republic.	CCXV.
14	Ion, on poetic frenzy.	LXVII.	32	Timaeus, on the generation of the world.	CCLXXXVII.
15	The Sophist, on being.	LXX.	33	Critias, on the Atlantic war.	CCCIII.
16	The Statesman, on kingship.	LXXX.	34	Twelve books on the Laws.	CCCVII.
17	Protagoras, against the sophists.	XC.	35	Epinomis, i.e., appendix to the laws.	CCCLXXIIII.
18	Euthydemus, or the litigious man.	CI.	36	Twelve Epistles of Plato.	CCCLXXXI.

¶ The first ten books are dedicated to Cosimo de' Medici. Of the rest, nine are dedicated to Piero de' Medici; seventeen—indeed, truly all of them—are dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici.

TO THE READER.

Lest you think, friend reader, that such a great work was published rashly, know that when I had composed it, before I published it, I employed several censors In this context, "censors" refers to scholarly editors or reviewers rather than suppressors. for this work: Demetrius the Athenian, no less Attic in philosophy and eloquence than by birth; Giorgio Antonio Vespucci; and Giovanni Battista Boninsegni—Florentines, men most skilled in the Latin and Greek languages. I also used the most sharp judgment of Angelo Poliziano, a most learned man. I also used the counsel of Cristoforo Landino and Bartolomeo Scala, most illustrious men.