MARSILIO FICI NO thR€€ Books on t,,:e A Critical Edition and Translation with Introduction and Notes by Carol V. Kaske and John R. Clark metneval. & R€Na.lSSa.NC€ T€)CTS & STUtnes In conjunction with The Renaissance Society of America First page of De vita 3 from MS Plut. 73, Cod. 39, fo!. 77 (80)' [our MS L]. In Tempe, Arizona the initial P of the text, Ficino is represented. Reproduced with permission from PI. XVII, p. 12 5 of C. Csapodi, et al., Bibliotheca Corviniana. 1998 Generous grants fromPegasus Limited forthe Advancement ofNeo-Latin Studies andfrom the Hull Fund ofComell University have helped defraycosts of publication. L4'-Fic -lf' © Copyright 1989 ě!fnterfor Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies IN MEMORIAM State University ofNew York at Binghamton Second Printing © Copyright 1998 Arizona Board of Regents forArizona State University James Hutton Library of CongressCatalogíng-in-Publication Data Ficino, Marsilio, 1433-1499. Three books on life. (MRTS; v. 57) Translation oť De triplicivita. Biblíography: p. Includes index. I. Astrology- Early works to 1800. 2. Medicine, Medieval. I. Kaske, Carol V., 1933- . II.Clark, John R., 1947- . III. Title. IV. Series: Medieval & Renaissance texts & studies; v. 57. BFl680.F55I3 1988b 615.8'99 88-8924 ISBN 0-86698-041-5 (alk. paper) e rhis book is made to last. t in Baskerville, smythe-sewn, i printed on acid-freepaper to library specifications. Filozofická fa kulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze nmredin the United States of America Errata Tahle of Contents page 293, line 29: change "Mars's" to "Saturn's" Acknowledgements Xl page 293, line 30: change "Saturn's" to "Mars's" List of Abbreviations Xlll Introduction page 299, lines 18-20: amend to read: Likewise the extreme moisture of Importance of De vita 3 the Moon and Venus (which is near to us) plus the tempered moisture Summary of Contents 4 ofJupiter ... The Present Edition 4 page 335, lines 10-11: "like a plane," should read "[like a plane,]" Editorial Introduction 6 page 347, line 20: "spectacle" should read "spectacles" Principles of Translation 13 page 347, line 33: change "other qualities." to "rest ofthe universe." Scope of the Notes 15 page 365, line 28: change "sphere" to "air" De vita in Ficinds Life and Works 17 page 482: add entry "Pingree, David, 46, 51, 53, 69" Traditional Material and Innovations 31 Habits of Mind 38 Magie 45 Repercussions 55 Notes to the Introduction 71 De vita Text and Translation 1489 Tahle of Chapter Headings 92 Sigla 101 Proem 102 Book One 106 Book Two 164 Book Three 236 Apology 394 Commentary Notes 407 Works Cited 461 Indices Index to the Introduction 477 Index auctorum et nominum propriorum 485 Index materiae medicae 493 Acknowledgements The present edition of De vitabegan in 1972 as a group project for a seminar in Renaissance Latin given by the late James Hutton of Cornell University. We are grateful to the third member of the seminar, Earl Delarue, for his ini­ tial contributions to our understanding ofBook 1. Besides conceiving the project, Professor Hutton checked the first draft of our entire translation along with most of our notes on Book 1 and advised us at all stages of the project up until his death in 1980. As editors, we have experienced the more generous side of the scholarly community. Professor Emeritus Paul Oskar Kristeller ofColum­ bia University first encouraged us to publish the project and to establish a crit­ ical text; since then, he has advised and helped us in many ways. The faculty and staffof the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine and the W ar­ burg Institute of the University of London extended help and hospitality to Clark during a year in London, 1979-80. Professors D. P. Walker of the W ar­ burg Institute, Michael]. B. Allen of the University ofCalifornia at Los An­ geles, and David Pingree ofBrown University have between them checked all of Kaske's translation of Book 3 and some of her notes; Walker, Kristeller, Professor Katharine Park of Wellesley College, and Professor Gerard Cox of the University of Washington as well as Professors Philip H. Rolland, R. E. Kaske, and Henry Guerlac ofComell University have gone through parts of the lntroduction and of the translation ofBook 1. As readers for the press, Kristeller, Allen, and Professor Brian Copenhaver of Oakland University saved us from many errors; and Copenhaver in particular sifted the Introduction and our notes toBook 3 with a diligence farbeyond the call of duty and made innumer­ able corrections and additions. Robert Johnson and Deborah Maclnnes have made valuable suggestions. Any errors which remain are of course our own. We are grateful for technological assistance to Comell University, the Univer­ sity of Pennsylvania, and Fordham University, and for monetary assistance to the AmericanCouncil of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical So­ ciety, the English Department and the Humanities Research GrantsCommit­ tee of Cornell University, and the Wellcome Institute for the History of XII Acknowledgements Medicine. The following libraries have generously provided us with microfilms and permitted direct access to manuscripts and rare books: in this country, the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; the Welch Medical Library, thejohns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.; the Hanes Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.; the Library of Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; the Library of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penna.; and the New York Academy of Medi­ cine, New York City; in Europe, the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbiit­ tel; the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich; the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin; the Biblioteca Riccardiana and the Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence; the Stads­ List of Common Abbreviations bibliotheek, Haarlem; and in London, the Warburg Institute, the Wellcome Institute, and the British Library. Finally, we record our deep indebtedness to previous scholars, many now Allen Michael]. B. Allen, ed and trans. Marsilio Ficino: The beyond reach of this message-Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl; D. C. Allen, Philebus Commentary. Berkeley, 1975. Chastel, Garin, Kristeller, Marcel, Plessner, Shumaker, Walker, Yates, and D. C. Allen D. C. Allen. The Star-Crossed Renaissance. Durham, NC, Zanier-without whose ground-breaking work on De vita this study could never 1941. have been written. Bouché-Leclercq. Auguste Bouché-Leclercq. L'Astrologie grecque. Paris, 1899; rpt. Brussels, 1963. Comm. Symp. Ficino. In Convivium Platonis, his Commentary on Plato's Symposium. Comm. Tim. Ficino. Commentary on Timaeus Della Torre Arnaldo della Torre. Storia dell'Accademia platonica di Firenze. Florence, 1902. Galen Claudius Galenus, Opera Omnia. ed. C. G. Kuhn. 20 vols. Leipzig, 1821-1833. Hippocrates Hippocrates. Oeuvres completes d'Hippocrate. ed. and trans. É. Littré. 10 vols. Paris, 1839-1861. JWCI Journal oj the Warburg and Courtauld lnstitutes. KP&S R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky, and F. Saxl. Saturn and Melancholy. London, 1964. Kristeller Phil MF Paul Oskar Kristeller. The Philosophy oj Marsilio Ficino. New York, 1943. Kristeller SF Paul Oskar Kristeller. Supplementum Ficinianum. 2 vols. 1937, rpt. Florence, 1973. Letters The Letters oj Marsilio Ficino. Translated by members of the Language Department of the School of Economic Science, London. 3 vols. London, 1975-1981. Marcel Raymond Marcel. Marsile Ficin(1433-1499). Paris, 1958. Marcel ed. or ed. Marsile Ficin: Théologie platonicienne del'immortalité des ames. ed. Raymond Marcel. vols. 1-2, Paris, 1964; vol. 3, Paris, 1970. OED Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford, 1933. XIV List oj Common Abbreviations Op. Marsilii Ficini Opera omnia. Basel, 1575; rpt. Turin, 1959. [Incitations of Op., two numbers are given for letters; thus, 901,2 refers to the second letter on page 901.] PC Patrologiae cursus completus ... Series graeca, accurante J. P. Migne. Paris, 1857-1866. 161. vols. PL Patrologiaecursus completus ... Serieslatina, accurante J. P. Migne. 1st ed. Paris, 1844-1864. 221 vols. Philostratus VA Flavius Philostratus. Vita Apollonii. 2 vols. The Loeb Classical Library, 1912. INTRODUCTION Plessner Martin Plessner, ed. Marsilius Ficinus: De vita libri tres. Ed. from the manuscript by Felix Klein-Franke. Hil­ desheim, 1978. Pliny HN C. Plinius Secundus. Naturalis historia. 10 vols. The Loeb Classical Library, 1938-1962. Produs ET Proclus: The Elements oj Theology. Ed. and trans. E. R. Dodds. Oxford, 1933. 2nd ed., 1963. Produs Plat. Theol. Proclus: Théologie platonicienne. Ed. and trans. H. D. Saffrey and L. G. Westerink. 4 vols. Paris, 1968-1981. Shumaker Wayne Shumaker. The Occult Sciences in the Renaissance: A Study in lntellectual Patterns. Berkeley, 1972. Theol. Plat. Ficino. Theologia Platonica. Thorndike Lynn Thorndike. A History oj Magie and Experimental Science. 2nd ed. 8 vols. New York, 1923-1958. Walker D. P. Walker. Spiritual and Demonic Magic jrom Ficino to Campanella. London, 1958, rpt. Notre Dame, Indiana, 1975. Yates Frances Yates. Giordano Brunoand the Hermetic Tradition. Chicago, 1964. Zanier Giancarlo Zanier.La medicina astrologicae lasua teoriaMar­ silio Ficino e i suoi critici contemporanei. Rome, 1977. INTRODUCTION Importance of "De vita" On several roads, De vita represents a cultural milestone. It was the first trea­ tise on the health of the intellectual- indeed, says Andrea Corsini, the first on the occupational hazards of any profession.1 Although it is one of the "strangest and most complex" works to come from Ficino's pen,2 it was im­ mensely popular in the Renaissance, being rivaled only by his Consiglio contro la pestilenza, as Martin Plessner observes, both in simple numbers of editions (nearly thirty) and in the length of time over which it kept appearing (last ed. 164 7).3 This pair of works earned Ficino his place in Sarton's list of seventy­ seven best-selling authors of scientific incunabula.4 The importance of our treatise for the history of Western culture has been attested for English readers in recent decades by detailed treatment in three books written by scholars as­ sociated with the Warburg Institute: R.