Fici'no

Fici'no, MARSILIO, an illustrious philosopher of the Italian Platonic school, was born at Florence in 1433. The son of the principal physician of Cosmo de' Medici, he was appointed by that prince in 1463 president of a classical academy (founded 1440) having for its aim the diffusion of the Platonic doctrines, which Ficino held to be the basis and confirmation of the Christian system; and at his suggestion he undertook the translation of Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, and Porphyry, besides a Latin but by no means literal version of Plato. On the death of Cosmo, Ficino found a no less munificent patron in this prince's grandson, Lorenzo de' Medici; and having, at the mature age of forty, decided on entering the church, he was endowed by Lorenzo with the rectorship of two churches in Florence, and a canonry in the cathedral. His theological doctrines, while undoubtedly sincere, present a strange medley of incongruous views, the natural result of his attempt to fuse the philosophy of Plato with the Christian creed. He died in 1499. His collected works were published at Basel (2 vols. fol. 1491), and consist of translations from the Greek philosophers, and original metaphysical and theological compositions, of which may be named Theologica Platonica seu de immortalitate animorum ac æterna felicitate. See R. L. Poole's Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought in Theology (1884).