Meditations on the Soul: Selected Letters of Marsilio Ficino

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. Ficino has been praised as a guiding light to spiritual seekers for centuries.

CONTENTS:
Introduction
Translators' Note

The Letters
Truth and Virtue
Human Nature
The Soul
Music, Harmony, and Divine Frenzy
Knowledge and Philosophy
Fortune, Fate, and Happiness
Divine Providence and the Good
The Planets and Astrology
Love, Friendship, and Marriage
Worldly Things and Civic Duty

Notes on the Letters
Notes on Ficino's Correspondents
Bibliography
Index

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), 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.