It was not an official legal institution and was not attached to the state or church. The Platonic Academy in Florence is a free community of free people, formed from different layers, having different professions, who came from different places who are in love with Plato, Neoplatonism, Filosofia Perennis.
Spiritual representatives (bishops, canons), and secular persons, and poets, and painters, and architects, and republican rulers, and the so-called businessmen of that era also gathered here.
The Platonic Academy in Florence (photo below) was a kind of fraternity of diverse talented individuals who later became famous. These include: Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Angelo Poliziano, Michelangelo Buanarotti, Pico de la Mirandola, Lorenzo the Magnificent, Francesco Catania, Botticelli, etc.
So, in this article we will talk directly about the brotherhood of geniuses, which was called the Platonic Academy in Florence (leader - Ficino).
Prerequisites for its creation
The impulse to revival has been brewing for quite some time. Despite the fact that the 12th - middle of the 17th centuries are considered to be the temporary boundaries of that era, nevertheless its culmination, the apotheosis falls on the 15th-16th centuries. The center was Italy, more precisely, Florence.
At this time, she was in the very depths of European secular and cultural life. It was there that they arrived from Germany in order to study art, science. In Paris, innovations from Florence attracted the attention of the Sorbonne professors, who regarded them almost as the “new gospel."
The important role played by this city in the era under consideration was described by R. Marcel. He believed that it was worth recognizing the absence of conditions for this kind of rebirth elsewhere. It was Florence - as the center of humanism, the center of light - that was able to attract all, without exception, the wealth of the human spirit. This was the place where the most precious manuscripts were collected, where you could meet outstanding scholars. In addition, Florence was identified by him with a giant art workshop, where everyone brought their talent.
Thus, there are no questions left as to why exactly the Platonic Academy in Florence, whose leader Ficino, showed the world unique geniuses who, through their works, made an incomparable contribution to the most diverse areas of our lives.
Athens of the West
So called Florence due to the fact that after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople, the cultural and spiritual riches of the ancient world flocked there. From a single “mystical stem” a unique phenomenon emerged both in the history of Italian culture and in Europe as a whole, called the Platonic Academy in Florence. Ficino - the platonic philosopher - led it. Another name for the academy is “Platonov’s family”, it had a short but rather brilliant history of its existence. The famous rulers of Florence, Cosimo Medici and his grandson Lorenzo, helped significantly.
A Brief History of the Platonic Family
The Platonic Academy in Florence was established in 1470 by the aforementioned Cosimo. The peak of prosperity falls on the reign of his grandson Lorenzo Medici, who is a member of it. Despite the short flowering of the academy (10 years), it had a significant impact on the culture and thought of Europe. The Platonic Academy in Florence inspired famous thinkers, artists, philosophers, scientists, politicians, and poets of their era. It was not just a meeting place for highly spiritual, talented and intelligent people. It is safe to say that the Platonic Academy in Florence is a brotherhood of like-minded people, the criteria for their unification are dreams of a new, better world, man, future, so to speak, a golden age worthy of attempts at rebirth. Many call it philosophizing, and sometimes even a way of life. A specific state of consciousness, soul …
The Platonic Academy in Florence, whose ideological leader is Ficino, creates a new spiritual climate, thanks to which models (ideas) were developed and deployed, which are still recognized as the main ideas of the era. The wealth left by the Platonov family is enormous. The Platonic Academy in Florence is the bearer of what is called the Renaissance myth. We can say that her story is the story of the Great Dream.
Platonic Academy in Florence: M. Ficino
He was a philosopher, and scientist, and theologian, and an outstanding thinker of the Renaissance, who had a significant impact on the evolution of philosophy of the XVII - XVIII centuries.
Marsilio was born near Florence (10/19/1433). He studied Latin and Greek, medicine, philosophy. Early enough, he showed interest in Plato (his school). The patronage of Cosimo de Medici and his successors played a significant role in the fact that Ficino devoted himself entirely to scientific knowledge.
In 1462, he was recognized as the ideological leader of the Platonic Academy in Florence, and in 1473 he became a priest, held a number of high-ranking church posts. His life was interrupted in Kareji, near Florence (10/01/1499).
Honored Works of Ficino
Marsilio owns incomparable translations into Latin of Plato and Plotinus. Their complete collections in Western Europe (published in 1484/1492) were widely in demand until the 18th century.
He also translated other Neoplatonists, such as Jamblichus, Porfiry, Proclus the Diadoch, etc., treatises of the Hermetic Code. His outstanding comments on Platonic and Plotinian writings were also popular, and one of them (the Platonic dialogue called “Feast”) became the source of a large number of discussions regarding love among thinkers, writers, and poets of the Renaissance.
According to Marsilio, Plato regarded love as a spiritual relationship between the so-called human beings, which is based on their initial inner love for the Lord.
Platonic theology of the immortality of the soul
This is the most important philosophical work of Ficino (1469-74, 1st edition - 1482). It is a metaphysical treatise (sophisticated), where the teachings of Plato, his followers are presented in accordance with existing Christian theology. This work (a highly systematic work of Italian Platonism precisely for the entire Renaissance) reduces the entire Universe to 5 fundamental principles, namely:
- God;
- heavenly spirit;
- centered intelligent soul;
- quality;
- body.
The main theme of the treatise is the immortality of the human soul. Ficino believed that the task of our soul is contemplation, which ends with a direct view of God, however, in view of the rare achievement of this goal within the Earth, its future life should be accepted as a postulate where it reaches its destination.
Ficino's famous works in the field of religion, medicine and astrology
A treatise such as The Book of the Christian Religion (1474) gained wide popularity. The correspondence of Marsilio is a rich source of historical, biographical information. Most letters are in fact philosophical treatises.
If we consider other works that are devoted to medicine, astrology, then we can distinguish “Three books about life” (1489). Marsilio Ficino is one of the leading thinkers of the nascent Renaissance, significant representatives of Renaissance Platonism.
Perception of God from the position of Ficino
According to Erwin Panofsky, his system is somewhere in between the scholasticism (God as the transcendence of the finite Universe) and the latest pantheistic theories (God is the identity of an infinite world). Like Plotinus, he understands the Lord as the ineffable One. His perception of God comes down to the fact that the Lord is uniform, universal. He is reality, but not a primitive movement.
According to Ficino, God created our world, "thinking of himself, " because within its framework to exist, think, desire - all one. The Lord is not in the whole Universe, which has no boundaries, and therefore is infinite. But God is at the same time in it in view of the fact that he fills it, while not filling himself, since he is fullness itself. So writes Marsilio in one of his dialogues.
Ficino: the last years of his life
In the years 1480-90. Marsilio continues to study "pious philosophy." He translates into Latin and comments on the Plotinian Enneads (1484-90, published in 1492), the Porphyrian writings, as well as Yamvlich, Areopagitus, Proclus (1490-92), Psell, and others.
He shows a strong interest in an area such as astrology. In 1489, Ficino published a medical astrological treatise entitled "On Life", after which a conflict was brewing with the higher clergy of the Catholic Church, more precisely, with Pope Innocent VIII. And only serious protection saves Ficino from accusations of heresy.
Then, in 1492, Marsilio wrote a treatise entitled "On the Sun and Light", which was published in 1493, and the following year completed the interpretation of the dialogues of Plato. The life of the leader of the Platonic Family ended in commenting on the work “Epistle to the Romans” (Apostle Paul).
