COMMENTARY BY MARSILIO FICINO OF FLORENCE UPON THE SYMPOSIUM OF PLATO.

PROEM.

A small decorative initial 'P' marks the start of the first paragraph.

Plato, Father of Philosophers, having completed the eighty-first year of his age on the seventh day of November, the day on which he was born, was sitting at table when, the dishes having been cleared away, he ended his life. This convito banquet/symposium, in which the Nativity and the End of Plato himself are contained, all the ancient Platonists celebrated every year until the time of Plotinus and Porphyry. But after Porphyry, for 1200 years, these solemn feasts were omitted. Finally, in our own times, the most famous LORENZO DE MEDICI, wishing to renew the Platonic banquet, entrusted the care of it to Francesco Bandino. Seeing then that Bandino had ordered the seventh day of November to be honored, having invited nine Platonists, he received them with royal preparation at the villa of Careggi. These were: M. Antonio degli Agli, Bishop of Fiesole; Master Ficino; M.