medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Entries about persons in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy typically include a good deal of biographical information, not all of which will be found in the initial section on a person's life. In the case of its entry on Ficino (written by Christopher Celenza, an historian and Neolatinist whose first doctorate was earned under Ronald Witt at Duke) the discussion of this episode occurs in section 2.4 (part of the treatment of Ficino's work). It's a good place to start, both for what it has to say on "seemingly heretical themes" treated in Book Three of Ficino's _De vita_ and for its reference to Paul Oskar Kristeller's discussion of Ficino's appeals for help in 1490 against imputations of heterodoxy on his part.
Unfortunately, Celenza cites that discussion only as reprinted in Kristeller's _Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters_ (Roma: Ediz. di Storia e Letteratura, 1956-1996), vol. 4, pp. 265-80, giving a page reference "265-76". From the lacunose rendition of that available in a Google Books preview at <http://tinyurl.com/m3fu5c3> it would appear that "265-76" is probably an error for "275-76". Those two pages not being included in this preview, one would want to go to the article itself, whose title (not provided by Celenza) is "Marsilio Ficino and the Roman Curia".
So now one has a choice: original or reprint. The Google Books preview gives one reason to suspect the reprint's accuracy, as it twice offers on p. 273 a contextually nonsensical reading "repeated" rather than the correct "repealed" (this has to do with Sixtus IV's lifting of his interdict against Florence in 1480; I haven't checked to see whether the error -- seemingly one of scanning -- arose at Storia e Letteratura or at Google). Though it might be less convenient (not every academic library has the journal in question) I'd go directly to the original in _Humanistica Lovaniensia_ 34A (1985), 83-98. There the discussion of Ficino's appeals for assistance in this matter occurs at pp. 93-95. As is typical of Kristeller's work, it's rich in reference to his source material (in this case, individual letters from Ficino).
Best,
John Dillon
On 10/21/14, "Cormack, Margaret Jean" wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to put togther some material in Ficino, about whom I know emarrassingly little. I note that the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a long entry on him, but I'm wondering about his life rather than his writings. Wikipedia informs me that "In 1489 he was accused of magic before Pope Innocent VIII(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_VIII) and needed strong defense to preserve him from the condemnation of heresy(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_heresy)." Can anyone supply me with more information on this? What exactly were the issues, and (Wikipedia not being the most reliable sources) was there talk of magic as well as heresy?
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Meg
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