Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499

Marsilio Ficino was an Italian Renaissance philosopher, priest, and physician at the court of the Medici in Florence. He produced the first complete Latin translation of the dialogues of Plato and of the Enneads of Plotinus, decisively reintroducing Platonism to the Western tradition. His own Platonic Theology argued for the immortality of the human soul on the basis of its capacity for endless contemplation. As director of the Florentine Academy he shaped Renaissance humanism, the theory of love, and early modern natural philosophy.