Marsilio Ficino is remembered above all as the translator of Plato and of the Corpus Hermeticum. But one of his most original, and most debated, works is the De vita libri tres, "Three Books on Life", published in Florence in 1489. In this work the philosopher tackles a subject close to his own heart: the condition of men of learning, marked according to tradition by the influence of Saturn.
A book for intellectuals
Ficino writes for the litterati, those who devote their lives to study. Starting from the ancient doctrine of the four humours, he observes that scholars tend towards melancholy, the humour associated with black bile and the planet Saturn. In the tradition going back to a problem attributed to Aristotle, melancholy is at once a danger and a sign of exceptional nature: many illustrious men were said to have been melancholic.
The book should be read as a document of fifteenth-century culture, describing man within a network of correspondences between body, soul and cosmos. The prescriptions it contains belong to the medicine of the time and today have only historical value.
The structure in three books
| Book | Title | Theme |
|---|---|---|
| First | De vita sana | the condition of scholars and melancholy |
| Second | De vita longa | preserving one's strength over the course of life |
| Third | De vita coelitus comparanda | how to obtain life from the heavens |
The first two books are closer to traditional medical treatises. The third is the one that made the work famous, because it develops a genuine theory of natural magic.
The third book: life from the heavens
The title of the third book can be translated as "On obtaining life from the heavens". Ficino presents it as a commentary on a passage of Plotinus that speaks of the ancients' ability to draw divine presence into statues and temples. The reference also closely recalls the passage in the Asclepius on animated statues.
The theory rests on a central idea: the cosmos is a living being, endowed with a body, a soul and a spiritus that acts as intermediary. In man too there is a subtle spirit linking soul to body. Since the two spirits are of the same nature, man can tune his own spirit to that of the world, drawing upon himself the influence of favourable planets.
The instruments of attunement
Ficino describes several traditional means by which this attunement can take place:
- music and song, in particular the hymns attributed to Orpheus, which he himself sang to the lyre;
- colours and places, choosing bright, green or golden surroundings associated with the Sun, Jupiter and Venus;
- perfumes and substances, according to planetary correspondences;
- images, that is, figures engraved at precise astrological moments, about which Ficino nonetheless shows caution.
The aim is to temper the influence of Saturn with that of the planets considered beneficial, above all the Sun, Jupiter and Venus.
Caution and accusations
Ficino was a priest and knew he was dealing with delicate matters. In the third book he carefully distinguishes natural magic, which merely uses the properties of the cosmos, from magic directed at demons, which he condemns. Despite these precautions, the book aroused suspicion and accusations, so much so that Ficino wrote an Apologia to defend his orthodoxy, arguing that he did not approve of unlawful practices but merely described them.
A long influence
The De vita was a great publishing success and was reprinted many times. It influenced authors such as Cornelius Agrippa, who took up many of its themes in the De occulta philosophia, and it helped define the Renaissance notion of natural magic. Its idea of melancholy as the condition of genius in turn enjoyed enormous fortune in European culture.
Twentieth-century scholars devoted much attention to this work, seeing in it one of the meeting points of philosophy, medicine, astrology and art in the Renaissance.
How to read it today
The De vita can be read on several levels. It is a historical medical text, a treatise of Neoplatonic cosmology and a reflection on the scholar's life. But it is also a meditation on harmony: on the idea that man can live in tune with the rhythm of the cosmos through music, beauty and contemplation.
For the Studio Esoterico Cornelio this is the most living part of the work: the idea that the human spirit can be educated towards harmony, and that beauty has a formative role.
In short
- The De vita libri tres was published by Marsilio Ficino in Florence in 1489.
- It is addressed to men of learning, associated with melancholy and the planet Saturn.
- The third book, De vita coelitus comparanda, develops a theory of natural magic.
- At its centre is the spiritus, linking man to the cosmos through music, colours, perfumes and images.
- The accusations it provoked led Ficino to write an Apologia.
