When Philosophers Rule: Ficino on Plato's Republic, Laws & Epinomis

Commentaries by Ficino on Plato's Writing #3

by Marsilio Ficino, Arthur Farndell (Translation)

Searching for a definition of good government, this commentary from Marsilio Ficino examines three Platonic dialogues that have had a profound effect on Western statesmen and jurists. A leading scholar of the Italian Renaissance—who translated all the works of Plato into Latin—Ficino prepared these notes for Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of the republic of Florence, who aspired to be the kind of enlightened ruler Plato described.

Genres: Philosophy

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2009

About the author

Marsilio Ficino (Italian: [marˈsiːljo fiˈtʃiːno]; Latin name: Marsilius Ficinus; 19 October 1433 – 1 October 1499) was an Italian scholar and Catholic priest who was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. He was also an astrologer, a reviver of Neoplatonism in touch with every major academic thinker and writer of his day and the first translator of Plato's complete extant works into Latin. His Florentine Academy, an attempt to revive Plato's Academy, had enormous influence on the direction and tenor of the Italian Renaissance and the development of European philosophy.