Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters of Marsilio Ficino

Description

The problems that taxed the minds of people during the Renaissance were much the same as those confronting us today. In their perplexity many deep-thinking people sought the advice of Marsilio Ficino, the leader of the Platonic Academy in Florence, and through his letters he advised them, encouraged them, and sometimes reproved them. Ficino was utterly fearless in expressing what he knew to be true. His letters cover the widest range of topics, mixing philosophy and humor, compassion and advice, and offering a profound glimpse into the soul of the Renaissance. This is the only accessible collection of Ficino's writings available in English.

Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) was a leading thinker in Florence, a magnet for the most brilliant scholars of fifteenth-century Europe, where the Italian Renaissance derived its impulse and direction, and where the West was awakened to a new realization about itself. In devoting most of his life to the study and translation of the great dialogues of Plato and the Neoplatonists, Ficino and his colleagues were midwives to the birth of the modern world.

Certainly among the most important philosophers of European history, Marsilio Ficino represents the reinterpretation of platonism and, in concert with this, is a central figure in what has come to be known as the Renaissance.-- "Parabola" Marsilio Ficino was at the very fountainhead of some of the most characteristic and influential aspects of the Italian Renaissance.-- "Times Literary Supplement" This book is a profound service to the student of Renaissance culture and to those interested in spirituality.-- "Library Journal"