1. Introduction

We view Ficino as the philosophical crux of the Italian Renaissance. And here, in a work in progress, we collect some references and outlines of his various facets. Here is a brief list.

1.1. Platonism and Neoplatonism

The dialogues of Plato, their sources, and their derivatives, before their absorbtion into Kabbalah and Esoteric Christianity.

1.2. Hermeticism

Although Isaac Casaubon proved (a century or so after Ficino) that the Corpus Hermeticum was not ancient as Cosimo and Ficino had thought, by showing that it refered to Plotinus (ca AD 200), Ficino was probably right in assessing its paradigm as deriving from ancient Egypt.

1.3. Chaldean Oracles

Another product of late Alexandrian antiquity, but deriving from ancient Persian, Indian, and Egyptian esoterica.

1.4. Humanism

The recovery of ancient (classical) literature. First Latin, beginning around 1270, then Greek, around 1400.

1.5. Astral magic

The long line of astrological magic:
  • Synesius
  • Proclus
  • Macrobius
  • al Kindi
  • Ficino
  • Bruno
  • Agrippa

1.6. Astral psychology, music therapy, others

The Platonic and Neoplatonic ideas of the spirit and soul, Orphic and Pythagorean applications of music, and other ancient threads were integrated by Ficino with great originality.
Revd by Ralph Herman Abraham on 24 Nov 2000