Commentary on Plato's Symposium

TO THE MAGNIFICENT MASTER

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Here you have the beautiful Symposium of the divine Plato, with the commentary of the great Marsilio Ficino, translated by me into the Tuscan language with more desire than knowledge. In this labor, I will tell the truth: the same thing that perhaps would have discouraged and turned back many others, has urged me on and made me bold. Just as a large and beautiful garden, most abundant in both flowers and fruits, cannot be so shaken—even if many are gathered from it—that it does not still offer some beauty and delight from its primary ornament, so I am certain that one cannot take so much from the majesty, the height of the concepts, and the divinity of Plato's words that, even if it is turned or broken as some may wish, there will not remain enough of its true beauty to be equally useful and pleasing to the reader. Now, just as it is in this language, I send it to you, my Lord, so that the flower of knowledge, which already shows itself in your youth, may bear fruit and mature with the virtue that still shows itself alive among these pages from such a tree. If this happens (as I hope), you will open up for me, who am so much a servant of your virtues, a very beautiful path to walk with a bolder and longer step on the journey where I have entered: to translate the other books of the divine Plato under your virtuous and happy name.