ITALIAN STUDIES, VOLUME LV, 2000

THE DANGER OF DEMONS:

THE ASTROLOGY OF MARSILIO FICINO~:-

The series of fierce polemics on astrology, which were fought in Italy and
most of Western Europe in the closing years of the fifteenth century and
opening decades of the sixteenth, involved many leading thinkers and had as
its focal point Pico della Mirandola's Disputationes, a massive attack in
twelve books published posthumously in 1496.1 Its stated aim was to
destroy one of Christianity's principal enemies, and Pico was probably
encouraged in his task by Savonarola who in 1493 launched an ongoing
campaign from the pulpit against astrologers.2 For several decades, however,
there had been growing tension as the Church reacted to increasing
astrological belief and practice at all social levels.3 It is during this period,
and under such tension, that Marsilio Ficino pursued the goals dictated by
his role as a devout priest, innovative theologian, and ground-breaking
humanist whose deep-seated astrological convictions nurtured a commitment
to retrieve and develop a beneficent form of astral magic consonant with his
Christian faith.
The considerable scholarly interest which Ficino's attitude to astrology
has attracted over the last hundred years has concerned itself mainly with
the problem of his apparent oscillation between acceptance and rejection
of the judicial day-to-day astrology of predictions and horoscopes. Its
resolution has been hampered by claims made by early commentators, and
his first biographer Corsi, that Marsilio was saved from the jaws of
paganism and underwent a religious crisis, claims carried into the modern

* This article is based on a paper given in Bristol at the Biennial Conference of the Society for
Italian Studies on 10 April 1999. My thanks go to Dr Angela Voss whose perceptive guidance,
given generously and electronically during its preparation, averted a number of misinterpretations.
I alone am to blame for any that may remain.
1 See Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola, Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem~ ed. by
Eugenio Garin, 2 vols (Florence: Vallecchi, 1946). On the polemics see Eugenio Garin, Lo zodiaco
della vita. La polemica sull'astrologia dal Trecento al Cinquecento (Bari: Laterza, 1976), pp. 63-
126 and Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, vols IV and V (New
York: Columbia University Press, 1934 and 1941).
2 See Remo Catani, 'Girolamo Savonarola and Astrology', The Italianist, 18 (1998), 71-
9°·
3 The Church's hostility increased markedly towards the end of the 1480s, as can be seen
both in works like the theologian Pedro Garcia's anti-magical reply to Pico's Apologia (see
Thorndike, IV, 497-507) and in the significant concessions to orthodoxy made by astrologers
like Lorenzo Buonincontri, Ficino's friend and correspondent (see Benedetto Soldati, La poesia
astrologica nel Quattrocento (Florence: Le Lettere, 1986; 1st edn 1906), pp. 13 I and 149-
53)·

37
 REMO CATANI

period by Della Torre and others.4 The inexactitude of this dramatic

interpretation has since been established by Saitta, Kristeller, and Marcel.s
But, alongside the references to auspicious times for action and the
lighthearted quips about the stars, which abound in his letters and would
seem to reflect a deep-seated belief in astrology,6 the sporadic utterances
against astrologers and their impieties remain: in the De Christiana
religione (1474);7 in the Theologia Platonica (1474);8 in the unpublished
Disputatio against astrologers and its proemium in the form of a letter to
Francesco Ippoliti Count of Gazzoldo (1477-78 );9 in a long letter to
Federico Duke of Urbino (1481);10 in the commentary on Plotinus's
Enneads (1486-9°);11 and in a famous letter to Poliziano of 20 August
12
1494.

4 Giovanni Corsi's Vita Marsilii Ficini~ written in 1506, can be found as Appendix I in
Raymond Marcel, Marsile Ficin (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1958), pp. 680-89. There is an English
translation in The Letters of Marsilio Ficino~ translated by members of the Language Department
of the School of Economic Science (London: Shepheard-Walwyn, 1985) pp. 135-48. See Arnaldo
Della Torre, Storia dell'Accademia Platonica di Firenze (Florence: Istituto di Studi Superiori,
1902), pp. 252-65, 515-19, 587-88. Daniel Pickering Walker is inclined to believe Zenobio
Aceiaiuolo's claim that Fieino was saved from heresy by Sant' Antonino who ordered him to
replace Plato with Aquinas; see The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the
Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (London: Duckworth, 1972), pp. 61-62.
5 See Giuseppe B. Saitta, Marsilio Ficino e la filosofia deltumanesimo, 3rd edn (Bologna:
Fiammenghi e Nanni, 1954), pp. 1-12; Paul Oscar Kristeller, 'Per la biografia di Marsilio Ficino'
(first published 1938), in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e
Letteratura, 1956), pp. 191-211; Marcel~ Marsile Ficin~ pp. 204-11.
6 See Remo Catani, 'Astrological Polemics in the Crisis of the 1490S', in Culture in Crisis: Italy
in the I490S (Oxford: Legenda, forthcoming 2000), note 17.
7 The ninth chapter is devoted to showing that Christianity is independent of the stars and to
censuring popular astrologers. See Opera omnia (Basel, 1576), I, fols 12-13.
8 See Theologia Platonica, IX. 3-4 (Opera, I, fols 2°4-11) where Pieino argues that man's
intellect and will do not depend on the stars.
9 The Disputatio contra iudicium astrologorum can be found in P. O. Kristeller, Supplementum
Ficinianum: Marsilii Ficinii Florentini Philosophi Platonici opuscula inedita et dispersa (Florence:
Olschki, 1937), II, 11-76; see p. CXL for the letter to Ippoliti, which is translated into English in
Letters of Marsilio Ficino, III, 75-77.
10 Opera, I, fols 849-53, where he presents the stars as signs which narrate God's glory, but
attacks the doctrine of nativities.
11 In the commentary on Enneads II. 3 (Opera, II, fols 16°9-42) where Fieino states that
astrological prediction is difficult to the point of being well-nigh impossible, he divides astrologers
into two categories (the praecipui who know the limits of astrology and the plebeii who concede
too much to astrology and even negate free will) and attacks the doctrine of nativities.
12 Opera, I, fo1. 958. See below for an analysis of this letter.
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS 39

Scholars have been at great variance over the interpretation of Ficino's

attitudes to astrology.13The need has been felt more acutely than ever in recent
years for a clear explanation of his seemingly divergent stances, and, in the quest
to provide one, the divergence has at times been construed in a manner which
could appear forced or convoluted.14 Although the close diachronic study called
for by Garin remains to be undertaken,15 investigation has been considerably
facilitated by Carol Kaske's edition in collaboration with John Clark, and her
English translation (1989) of the De vita, Ficino's most complex and contentious
work.16 Much energy has also been expended on two interrelated querelles: one
on the relative importance of Ficino's Hermetic as opposed to his Neoplatonic
sources; another, perhaps more important, on the methodology to adopt in the
assessment of Renaissance astrological and magical writings.17 Nonetheless, a

13 The following are among the more significant studies: Hans Baron, 'Willensfreiheit und
Astrologie bei M. Ficino und Pico della Mirandola', Kultur- und Universalgeschichte: W. Goetz zu
seinem 60. Geburtstag dargebracht von Fachgenossen, Freunden und Schulern (Leipzig and Berlin:
Teubner, I927), pp. I45-70; Ernst Cassirer, The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance
Philosophy, trans. by Mario Donandi (Oxford: Blackwell, I963), pp. 73-I22 (Ist edn in German
I926); Thorndike, IV, 562 H.; Paul Oscar Kristeller, The Philosophy of Marsilio Fieino (New
York: Columbia University Press, I943), pp. 3IO-I2; Garin, Lo zodiaco della vita, pp. 69-86,
which is representative of his numerous other studies; D. P. Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic
from Ficino to Campanella (London: Warburg Institute, 1958), pp. 3-72, and 'Ficino and
Astrology', in Marsilio Fieino e il ritorno di Platone. Studi e documenti, ed. by Gian Carlo
Garfagnini (Florence: Olschki, I986), I, 34I-49; Frances A. Yates, Giordano Bruno and the
Hermetic Tradition (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, I964); Giancarlo Zanier, La medicina
astrologica e la sua teoria: Marsilio Ficino e i suoi critici contemporanei (Rome: Edizioni
dell'Ateneo e Bizzarri, I977), pp. 5-60; Cesare Vasoli, 'Le debat sur l'astrologie a Florence dans la
seconde moitie du XVeme - siecle: Ficin, Pic de la Mirandole, Savonarole', in Divinations et
controverses religieuses en France au XVIeme siecle (Paris: Ecole Normale Superieure de Jeunes
Filles, I987), pp. I9-33, and 'Marsilio Ficino e l'astrologia', in L'astrologia e la sua influenza
nella filosofia, nella letteratura e nell'arte dall'eta classica al Rinascimento (Milan: Nuovi
Orizzonti, I992), pp. I59-86; Paola Zambelli, L'ambigua natura della magia: filosofi, streghe, riti
nel Rinascimento (Milan: Mondadori, I99I), pp. 5-52, I2I-52, 269-86, 302-27; Carol Kaske,
'Ficino's Shifting Attitude towards Astrology in the De vita coelitus comparanda, the Letter to
Poliziano, and the Apologia to the Cardinals', in Marsilio Ficino e it ritorno di Platone, I, 37I-8I,
and the Introduction to Marsilio Fieino, Three Books on Life, critical edition and translation with
introduction and notes by C. V. Kaske and J. R. Clarke (Binghamton, NY: Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies in conjunction with the Renaissance Society of America, I989), pp.
I3-72, 75-90. See Michael J. B. Allen, The Platonism of Marsilio Ficino: a Study of his
'Phaedrus' Commentary, its Sources and Genesis (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University
of California Press, 1984), p. I83, note 27 for a brief summary and categorization of the views of
some of these scholars.
14 In this regard, the articles by Kaske ('Fieino's Shifting Attitude towards Astrology') and
Walker ('Fieino and Astrology') are examined below.
15 See Garin, Lo zodiaco della vita, pp. 70-7I.
16 See note I3.

17 Paola Zambelli has been vociferous in both debates: she has with good reason attacked the
downgrading by Copenhaver (see below, note 29) and others of Hermes Trismegistus, the Corpus
Hermeticum and Asclepius, and she has positively railed against Anglo-American 'internalist'
historians of science for whom all external factors are irrelevant (see L'ambigua natura della
magia, pp. 5-28, 25I-327). The second of her invectives is particularly welcome, since neither the
polemics as a whole, in their tactical articulation, nor the motives and mentalities of its
participants can be understood without a fair measure of contextualization.
 REMO CATANI
4°
wholly satisfactory resolution of the problem of Ficino's inconsistency is still
outstanding.
The aim of this article is not to provide such a resolution but to argue in
favour of a method of approach. Only by attempting to discern Marsilio
Ficino's particular perspective on celestial influence, to comprehend a
mentality formed through a confluence of persuasions, discoveries, and
pressures, can one suggest a coherent way of reading his juxtaposition of
contrasting stances as an unbroken syncretic flow which impelled and
informed his religious sentiment and intellectual convictions. It is, however,
important to realize that this remained an esoteric and largely personal
perception which, as the concluding section of this article will attempt to
demonstrate, found little acceptance or understanding in his own day.

It is generally accepted that astrology's validity and efficacy on a practical

level was first confirmed for Ficino through the medieval medical tradition. 18
Marsilio the doctor's son was himself an accomplished and recognized
physician.19 Throughout his life he maintained close contacts within the
profession and actively pursued his medical interests at all times.20
Repeatedly, he insisted on the divine origin and pre-eminent position of the
medical art which is the subject of some of his shorter writings.21 In I479,
for example, we find him composing a Consilio contro la pestilentia in
Italian in which he assigns an astrological cause to the plague.22 And, of
course, the significance of the Three Books on Life hinges on whether or not
they truly are, as he claims, simply medical in scope.23
In the Apologia to the three Pieros that followed the De vita Marsilio felt
obliged to urge Piero del Nero to explain on his behalf that the charitable
act of curing the sick befits the pious priest: 'God Himself, who through the
heavens impels all animals to his medicines, certainly permits priests to drive

18 See Kaske, Three Books on Life, p. 3 I and note I. Garin, in 'Considerazioni sulla magia del
Rinascimento', in Cristianesimo e ragion di stato: tumanesimo e il demoniaco neWarte (Congressi
internazionali di studi umanistici), ed. by Enrico Castelli (Rome and Milan: Bocca, 1953), pp.
2I5-24, points out that Renaissance magic 'nella sua parte maggiore, non e che magia ed
astrologia medievale', and that the main Renaissance texts are compilations of this tradition. See
too Jean Seznec, La survivance des dieux antiques (London: Warburg Institute, I940), p. 44, and
Lynn Thorndike's study of medical treatises in Science and Thought in the Fifteenth Century (New
York: Hafner, I929), pp. I09-22.
19 See Kaske, Three Books on Life, pp. I8-I9; Opera, I, fols 530 and 874-75. Ficino's name is
found in a list of Florentine doctors for the year I470: see Thorndike, Science and Thought, p.
I IO. His first biographer Corsi writes: 'He attended carefully not only to his own health but to
that of all his friends as well, for he shared the fruits of his not inconsiderable study of medicine,
effecting remarkable cures always free of charge' (Letters, III, I44-45).
20 See Della Torre, pp. 779-80.
21 See below.

22 See Kaske, Three Books on Life, pp. 24-25. He also wrote a treatise De expiratione et
respiratione as an appendix to his commentary on the Timaeus (Opera, II, fol. I484).
23 See the Proem to Lorenzo where he insists that his aim is 'to bring help to the sick by natural

means' (Three Books on Life, p. I03).

 THE DANGER OF DEMONS

out diseases, not, I say, for gain but out of charity, with medicines that are
strengthened by the heavens' .24 Everything points to the fact that Ficino's
vocation was authentic, that he was a dedicated Christian priest, from his
ordination in I4 73, to his installation as canon of Florence Cathedral in
I487, to his will and testament witnessed by Dominicans of San Marco two
days before his death.25 Kristeller has also pointed out that Marsilio's
writings include an apologetic treatise, a fragmentary commentary on the
Epistle to the Romans, a group of sermons, and several translations of
Patristic writings, and has noted an affinity between the organization of lay
religious associations and that of Ficino's Platonic Academy, and between
certain branches of popular religious literature, such as the lay sermon or
the spiritual letter, and groups of declamations and moral epistles composed
by Marsilio.26 These are for the most part contained in his collected letters,
and, on a balanced reading, stand out just as strikingly as the letters
containing astrological quips and advice.
There is no contradiction between this view of an orthodox, pious Ficino
and his undoubted excitement at an early age at what Michael Allen calls
'an Egyptian dimension to Plato's vision', especially after his translation of
the Corpus Hermeticum into Latin for Cosimo, because, following
Lactantius in preference to St Augustine, he saw Hermes Trismegistus as a
precursor and witness of Christ, as one whose authentic religious vision had
been lost by the Egyptians in their later cult of daemons.27 He saw him as
reformer rather than founder of the illicit statue magic in the Asclepius, by
which Ficino was still spellbound when he wrote the closing chapter of the
De vita clitus comparanda.28 But his desire in I462, as in I489, was to
place his discoveries at the service of Christ. The importance of the
Hermetic corpus in forming his vision of a prisca theologia has been
satisfactorily established by Garin, Zambelli, and Castelli, even if others are

24 Three Books on Life, p. 397.

25 See P. O. Kristeller, 'Marsilio Ficino and His Work after Five Hundred Years', Appendix 8 ('A
List of Documents Concerning Marsilio Fieino and His Family'), in Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di
Platone, pp. I7I-80.
26 See 'Lay Religious Traditions and Florentine Platonism', in Studies in Renaissance Thought
and Letters, pp. 99-I22.
27 See M. J. B. Allen, 'Marsilio Ficino, Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum', in
New Perspectives on Renaissance Thought: Essays in the History of Science, Education and
Philosophy, ed. by John Henry and Sarah Hutton (London: Duckworth, 1990), pp. 38-47 (p. 39).
Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum in 1462 and entitled it Pimander after the first treatise.
28 See below.
 REMO CATANI

not mistaken in asserting the later predominance of Plotinus and other

Neoplatonists.29
Ficino's concept of a Christianized magic to be used by priest and doctor
was formed at an early stage. In a youthful speech in praise of medicine, in
which Hermes is called 'fount of philosophy', he speaks of an ancient magic
art which refers to the stars and in which the care of the soul and the body
come together in one.3D Daniel Walker has described in detail Ficino's
planetary talismans, which were intended to address the stars as natural
forces, and his habit of interrupting his studies to sing the verses of Orpheus
on the lyre as a therapeutic practice.31 Ficino attempted to channel his
knowledge and industry into three distinct but interrelated spheres of
activity, in order to benefit each of the three components of the human
make-up - the body, the spiritus, and the soul. He was glad to have taken
up medicine, the lyre, and theology, because they corresponded to this
tripartite division and complemented one another to make him the complete
man, at once doctor, astral magician, and priest.32 Marsilio's vision is of
harmony based on the animated heavens of the Neoplatonists. It postulates
a sympathetic magic which in his eyes is not only compatible with Christian
orthodoxy, but increases our knowledge of God. 'A man is not
harmoniously formed who does not delight in harmony,' he writes to a
fellow priest in 1479; '[ ... J the universe itself should resound as fully as it
can with the intelligence and goodness of its author'.33 In the same year, he
and his closest friend Giovanni Cavalcanti send a fellow philosopher an
'Orphic Comparison of the Sun to God', so that the celestial luminary may
mirror 'that super-celestial One who has set his tabernacle in the Sun'.34To
the astrological poet Lorenzo Buonincontri he writes that 'wicked men are
never able to become true astrologers', for wisdom is granted only to 'minds
utterly devoted to God'. 35 Ficino's hoped for renovatio, his predicted
Saturnia regna, have a religious, as well as political and literary, dimension

29 See Garin, Lo zodiaco della vita, pp. 72-75; Zambelli, L'ambigua natura della magia, passim;
Patrizia Castelli, '''I prodigi vani" e gli antichi sapienti: Astrologia, Magia e Teurgia negli scritti
del Ficino', in Illume del Sole: M. Ficino medico dell'anima (Florence: OpusLibri, 1984), pp. 33-
50; Kaske, Three Books on Life, Introduction, passim; Brian P. Copenhaver, 'Scholastic
Philosophy and Renaissance Magic in the De vita of M. Fieino', Renaissance Quarterly, 37
(1984), 523-54 (pp. 550-54); 'Natural Magic, Hermetism and Occultism in Early Modern
Science', in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by Davis C. Lindberg and Robert S.
Westman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 261-301; 'Renaissance Magic and
Neoplatonic Philosophy: Ennead IV. 3-5 in Ficino's De vita coelitus comparanda', in M. Ficino e
it ritorno di Platone, I, 351-69.
30 Marsilii Ficini oratio de laudibus medicinae (Opera, I, fols 759-60), probably written between
1459 and 1462. See Letters, III, 22-25.
31 See Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, pp. 12-14; also Della Torre, p. 788.
32 See Della Torre, p. 777. Ficino was aware of his exact standpoint which we find explained in
plain terms in a letter to Francesco Musano (Opera, I, fol. 609).
33 To Sebastiano Foresi. See Letters, v, 37-38.
34 To Lotterio Neroni. See Letters, v, 44-47.
35 See Letters, IV, 15.
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS 43

which is in no way pagan or discordant with Christianity. Aroused though

he may have been by George Gemistus Pletho' s call for a return to the
worship of the ancient gods, Ficino's dreamed-of philosophia was
unquestionably pia.36 His privileged vantage point revealed a singular
alignment, an esoteric perception which engendered a profoundly personal
form of religious syncretism that went beyond the mere reconciliation of
opposites in its attempt to recuperate and legitimize, in the service of Christ,
astrology's power to celebrate the divine.
It is in this light that Marsilio's attacks on astrological abuse can be better
understood. They are more than tactical defensive measures: they stem from
a positive desire to safeguard Christianity and divine providence, and above
all to protect the human soul and free will. In the De Christiana religione he
devotes the whole of the ninth chapter (Authoritas Christi non ab astris sed
a Deo) to showing that the Christian religion is completely independent of
the heavens and to censuring certain impious 'fati fatui assertatores', those
second-rate, popular astrologers who were always a thorn in his flesh. For
Ficino the power of Christianity is not comparable with that of the stars: it
transcends them to form a direct link with God.37 The human mind is
treated in the same way in Theologia Platonica IX. 4, which he considered
important enough to repeat a few years later in the Disputatio. This chapter,
which deals with the relationship of voluntary, purposive action to the
condition of nature and asserts that man's intellect transcends all stellar
forces and is in direct contact with God, is a forward-looking affirmation of
human autonomy.38 The enemy remain the plebeian astrologers against
whom, in the proem to the Disputatio sent to Ippoliti, he urges philosophers
to take up arms because, 'by upholding heavenly fate, they presume to take

36 See Garin, Lo zodiaeo della vita, pp. 67-69; Sebastiano Gentile in M. Ficino, Lettere, I
(Florence, 1990), pp. XII-LXV; Kaske, Three Books on Life, Introduction, p. 66.
37 See Opera, I, £ols I2-I3. All the arguments which he rehearses in this chapter are traditional,
but one is struck by his zealous tone of voice. A similar standpoint is sustained in the long letter
of 6 January I48 I which he wrote to Federico Duke of Urbino (Opera, I, fols 849-53). I have
also consulted an Italian folio edition in the University of Glasgow Library, Libro di Marsilio
Fieino della Christiana religione, n. p. d. (Sp ColI Hunterian BW.3.II; correlates to IGI 3860,
British Museum IA.344I3, Goff FI5I), which appears to have been written the previous year in
1473·
38 See Charles Trinkhaus, 'Marsilio Ficino and the Ideal of Human Autonomy', in Ii ritorno di
Platone, I, 197-210, where it is claimed that Ficino 'developed the fullest and most farreaching
exposition of the ideal of human autonomy in the Renaissance, and that this was certainly one of
the most important contributions of his philosophy to the future of human culture' (p. 198). The
Disputatio closes with a concise exposition of the main argument, also found in Theologia
Platoniea IX. 4, against astrological determinism, ending: 'Neque dicat aliquis, sicut corpus
nostrum celesti corpori subdatur, ita mentem nostram menti celi subdi, quia corpus quidem
nostrum est ab ilIa, mens vero neque a corpore ullo est neque a mente celi motrice, sed a Deo'
(Supplementum Ficinianum, II, 74). A similar confutation of astral determinism can be found
among the Hermetic writings which are a source of Ficino's belief in astrology (see E. Garin, G.
P. della Mirandola: vita e dottrina (Florence: Le Monnier, 1937), p. I76).
44 REMO CATANI

away freedom of direction from God, who is above the heavens, and who is
the highest freedom'. 39 The invective is repeated a decade later in the
commentary on Plotinus.40 In a letter to Francesco Marescalchi, in which he
announces that he is working on the Disputatio against fatalistic astrologers,
Marsilio asserts the positive nature of his own astrology: 'he who puts [the
heavenly spheres] under examination seems already to have transcended
them, to have come near to God Himself and the free decision of the will'.41
He abhors the slavery of astral determinism because it negates the active
participation of the astral magician and a communion with higher stellar
forces that not only serves his role as doctor and magus but brings him
nearer to God.
It is not surprising that the Disputatio against astrologers was left
unfinished and unpublished. Its arguments are implicit in his work of
philosophical-religious syncretism into which they are naturally integrated;
indeed certain passages in it are taken from the De Christiana religione and,
as has been pointed out, from the Theologia Platonica, or are used again
later in the commentary on Plotinus.42 In any case, the Disputatio cannot be
explained away by Walker's untypically fanciful suggestion that it was
hastily thrown together in I493/4 when Pico was working on his attack.43 It
may well be that Ficino was prompted to start his Disputatio, as Vasoli
suggests, by the harder line taken by the Church on providence and free will
following the dispute on future contingencies which ended in I473,44 but the
tone of his letters in the I470S would hardly suggest unease on his part. On
the other hand, the pretences and formal submissions to ecclesiastical
judgement found in the De Vita (I489), which will shortly be considered,
reflect a nervous awareness of the watchdogs of orthodoxy. It should be
borne in mind, however, that, even if not always wholly comfortable in his
exposition, Ficino remained fundamentally Christian: it was his constant and
fervent desire to refine his precious astral knowledge in full accordance with
the Church's requirements.

39 Opera, I, fol. 781. See Letters, III, 77.

40 See Opera, II, fol. 16°9, and note I I above.
41 Letters, III, 64. See Opera, I, fol. 776 (see below, note 43). Marescalchi was a member of
Pieino's Platonic Academy, to whom he dedicated the De Christiana religione.
42 See Garin, Lo zodiaco della vita, p. 75; Walker, 'Pieino and Astrology', p. 343.
43 See Walker, 'Pieino and Astrology', pp. 342-45. Hans Baron's dating in 'Willensfreiheit und
Astrologie' remains convincing. Apart from letters to Bernardo Bembo of 14 June 1477 and to
Francesco Marescalchi of 28 June 1477 (see Opera, I, fols 771 and 776, and Letters, III, 48-49
and 63-64), in which he says he is composing a book on providence and free will against
predetermination and the predictions of astrologers, and the Proem sent to Ippoliti (Opera, I, fol.
781), there is another letter sent shortly before to Ippoliti in which he gives details of progress on
the work (see Baron, p. 156, note I). In an undated letter to Poliziano answering a request for the
titles of books he has written, Fieino also mentions the work as Disputationes contra
Astrologorum iudicia (see Opera, I, fol. 781).
44 See Vasoli, 'M. Picino e l'astrologia', pp. 164-65, and 'Le debat sur l'astrologie a Florence',
pp. 22-23; Catani, 'Astrological polemics', note 23.
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS 45

Equally, he wanted to refine it on an epistemological level and it is here

that true ambiguities emerge. In part, these are caused, as Garin has
observed, by a lack of rigour and consistency in the myriad manifestations
and definitions of the astrological arts, both apotelesmatic and magical,
offered by the classical and Arabic traditions.45 A further loss of focus can
be ascribed to the allusive and rhetorical nature of Marsilio's investigative
discourse. Nevertheless, there are also genuine uncertainties which make it
impossible to trace a coherent linear development on astrological belief.
Giancarlo Zanier has amply illustrated the contradictions that emerge from
the fact that Ficino continually fluctuates between regarding the heavenly
bodies as causes and regarding them as signs of sublunar happenings.46 At
times, as his correspondence with Cavalcanti on the melancholy effect of his
star Saturn shows, he seems momentarily caught in a despondency which
might appear fatalistic, but only to react vigorously as Klibansky, Panofsky,
and Saxl have famously described.47 Yet Marsilio's most uncompromising
assaults against plebeian astrologers and their predictions, even if intended
to prove his unimpeachable orthodoxy, stop short of the mark. He is
hesitant in drawing support from radical attacks by ancient writers such as
Cicero,48whereas Pico makes full use of them, because Ficino's belief in the
theoretical possibility of precise astrological prediction in the realm of
mundane affairs remains intact despite his doubts on its practicability. 49Pico
was out to destroy astrology, arch enemy of Christianity, root and branch.
Ficino, whose superior sympathetic magic was predicated on an astrological
perception of the universe, was intent on a vigorous pruning that served the
dual purpose of protecting his esoteric practices and placing him in the
forefront of the Church's campaign against the irreligious excesses of
astrologers.
Things came to a head with the De vita of 1489. Its third book, De vita
ccelitus comparanda, where Ficino expresses a cautious but insistent interest
in astrological images or talismans, provoked curial condemnation and
ensured for Marsilio the lasting reputation of an illicit magician who
dabbled in demon-evocation. But the De vita is presented as an essentially
medical work for scholars who study too much and fall prey to
melancholy, and its third book, the De vita ccelitus comparanda, aims,
through the spiritus - the halfway house between body and soul - at

45 See Garin, Lo zodiaco della vita, p. 7 I.

46 See Zanier, pp. 36, 58.
47 See Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy (London:
Nelson, 1964), pp. 127-28, 271; Cassirer, p. 100. The correspondence with Cavalcanti (Opera, I,
fols 731-33), although not dated, was probably written in the Autumn of 1476, shortly before
Ficino began writing his Disputatio.
48 In De divinatione II. 87-99.
49 See Eric Weil, La Philosophie de Pietro Pomponazzi: Pic de la Mirandole et la Critique de
l'Astrologie (Paris: Vrin, 1985), ed. by Emilienne Naert and M. Lejbowicz, pp. 147-50 (the essay
on Pico was written in 1938).
 REMO CATANI

putting 'the Magus and his patient in touch with their personal stars and
the Anima Mundi'50 in what Ficino claims to be a natural way- Whether or
not this is an illusory concept, and the degree to which he can be
exculpated from daemonic magic, are questions that have been much
discussed and cannot easily be resolved here.51 One thing is certain: the
composition of the De vita and its public presentation were undertaken
with remarkable care, not to say cunning.52 The last book to be written,
the De vita longa, is presented as the second, so that the De vita caditus
comparanda can appear to be a natural medical progression. On the whole
question of images he pretends to be interpreting Plotinus (p. 238, 11. 20-
23; p. 320, 11. I09-I7), who gives him a respectable philosophical
framework for his astral magic. He sides with Albertus Magnus in his
orthodox abhorrence of prayers and fumigations, even when not overtly
directed at stellar daemons, but points out that he does not reject figures
and letters on images (p. 340, 11. I3 I-37). He latches on to St Thomas's
reluctant acceptance of figures in the Summa contra Gentiles (p. 340, 11.
I46-48), while elsewhere he agonizingly disapproves of engraved images
(p. 320, 11. I02-07). At all times he covers himself with disclaimers and
submissions to Church authority. In the penultimate chapter, he answers a
'severe prelate' ('severus religionis antistes') - no doubt meant to represent
the extreme official line - on free will and idolatry, submitting to him as
required; but it is clear that he considers the prelate cavilling on what
Marsilio sees as the legitimate use of astrology in practical affairs (pp.
380-82). In the final chapter, we sense his excitement when he expounds
the statue-animating passage in the Asclepius and cites Iamblicus. His
deference to St Thomas is parenthetical and cursory; he quickly returns to
his magus communicating through the Anima Mundi with the Ideas of the
Divine Mind (pp. 388-90, 11. 77-I35). Is the work's ending (pp. 39°-92,
11. I3 6-39), then, in which Ficino opposes the pure piety of the Gospel to
the superstition of the heathen and refers the reader to his own De
Christiana religione, mere lip-service? Not necessarily, for it was back in
the De Christiana religione (I474), as Patrizia Castelli points out, that
Marsilio first launched his religious syncretism. His dedication to Lorenzo
echoes that of the Pimander to Cosimo of a few years before in
historicizing Hermes Trismegistus as a sacred source of priestly wisdom,
and looks back to a happy age when the divine union of knowledge and
religion was intact. 53

50 Kaske, Three Books on Life, Introduction, p. 28.

51 See Catani, 'Astrological Polemics', notes 13, 14, 15.
52 Full details of the astute intricacy of composition can be found in Kaske and Clark's critical
edition, to which reference is made in what follows.
53 '0 felicia secula, quae divinam hanc sapientiae religionisque copulam (... ] integram servavistis'
(Opera, I, fol. I). See Castelli, pp. 41-43.
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS 47
The De vita ca:litus comparanda, and the Apologia to the three Pieros that
followed it, represent a particularly intense moment of syncretic effort and
will in Marsilio Ficino. He is attempting to establish and hold a bottom line
for his astral magic in the face of incomprehension and disapproval. It is not
unlikely that the recent condemnation of thirteen of Pico's conclusiones,
with its clamorous repercussions,54 had a part in persuading him to make
this stand. But at this point, despite his submissions and the correspondence
that attests his campaign to clear his name in the Roman curia, Marsilio's
mood is confident. His desire is not to practise an illicit pagan rite, it is to
recuperate a celestially orientated prisca theologia, an ancient knowledge of
the communion and reciprocal sympathy of all things, and direct it towards
man's betterment and the celebration of God.55 It is mistaken to think of
Ficino as contaminating Christianity with astrology; his enduring aim was to
establish an accepted reconciliation of astrology and theology.56 An apogee
is reached in I492: he writes to Braccio Martelli asserting Christianity's
affinity with Neoplatonic daemonic theory;57 he publishes his translation of
Plotinus and the celebrated letter to Paul of Middelburg announcing the
Golden Age;58it is the year of the De Sole in which the sun is piously and
eloquently compared to God and the divine Trinity. 59
It is also the year of Lorenzo's death, signalling the end of the Saturnia
regna in their political aspect. Things changed dramatically with the
ascendancy of Savonarola and Pico's determination to destroy the Hydra of
astrology. Ficino was aware of Pico's intention and his letter of 20 August
I494 to Poliziano nervously reminded him and Pico of his own anti-
astrological role, underlined the strictly medical nature of the De vita ca:litus
comparanda, admitted he might have gone too far here and in the De Sole
and De lumine.60 Evidently, he was making an embarrassed but necessary

54 See E. Garin, Ritratti di umanisti (Florence: Sansoni, 1967), pp. 200-1I.

55 See Kaske, Three Books on Life, Introduction, pp. 48-49, on Fieino's sympathetic magic
(stressed by Garin and Zambelli) which seems to be compatible with Christian orthodoxy. See too
Garin, 'Considerazioni sulla magi a del Rinascimento', pp. 215-24: 'Questa vera magia [del
Ficino], erede di quella pia scienza degli antichi Persiani, si inginocchio dinanzi al Cristo, e
divenne insieme sacerdozio e tecnica, medicina della mente e dei corpi, cura convergente d'anime e
di molti terrestri malanni' (p. 219).
56 Vasoli sees a 'profonda contaminazione tra astrologia e tradizione cristiana' in Fieino's
astrological interpretation of the Magi's star etc. ('Marsilio Fieino e l'astrologia', pp. 185-86). For
a more syncretic view, see Stephen M. Buhler, 'Marsilio Ficino's De stella magorum and
Renaissance Views of the Magi', Renaissance Quarterly, 43 (1990), 348-71. See Catani,
'Astrological Polemics', note 26.
57 Opera, I, fols 875-79.

58 Opera, I, fo1. 944.

59 See Castelli, It lume del Sale, pp. 13, 55.

60 See Opera, I, fo1. 958 ('tam in libris de vita, quam de Sole et lumine cum Philosophic is poetica
miscens, liberius sum interdum et sorte licentius evagatus'). On this letter see Garin, Introduction
to G. P. della Mirandola, Disputationes, I, pp. 8-10; Thorndike, IV, p. 572; Kristeller, The
Philosophy of M. Ficino, p. 310; Kaske, 'Ficino's Shifting Attitude to Astrology'.
 REMO CATANI

tactical retreat. There were to be no more public manifestations of his

syncretic VISIon, but it does not follow that it was obscured or that he lost
his astrological beliefs.61 It is difficult to accept Kaske's contention that
Ficino's backtracking in 1494 was not tactical, and that his faith in
Savonarola motivated a rejection of astrology to which he returned when he
became politically disillusioned with the friar.62 There is nothing to indicate
that Marsilio's astrological syncretism wavered.63 It was part of a world-
view that transcended both the passing admiration he might have felt for
Savonarola's militant Christian piety and the necessity for political
collaboration with him. The Apologia to the College of Cardinals written by
Ficino against Savonarola in 1498, in which he invoked astrological and
Platonic arguments to prove Girolamo was possessed of a devil, is not a
volte-face,64 but reflects a fundamental philosophical, religious, and
ideological antagonism. As has recently been argued, in its combination of
ancient mythology and scripture, in its syncretic tonality, Marsilio Ficino's
hnal Apologia is a paean of victory. 65

All of Ficino's varying stances towards astrology ultimately stem from a

consistent and confidently held world-view that is at once syncretic and
idiosyncratic. But, despite this confidence, it is fraught with caution and
unease in its public manifestation, where its validity, in certain contentious
aspects, faced the test of ecclesiastical approval and outside opinion. In
particular, his wavering treatment of that ancient theurgical magic, prone to
idolatry, which exerted a troubled fascination on him, attests his failure to
find peace of mind in an unambiguous, natural system purged of daemonic
connotation. His reluctant dismissal of talismans in the Ad lectorem of the

61 Kristeller has drawn attention to a short letter found in an incunabulum printed in Paris in
1498 (Hain 1907), but not printed in the Opera omnia, which Ficino discreetly sent to Germain
de Ganay between 1494 and 1498 as a dedication accompanying a copy of his translation of the
Orphic Hymn to Nature. The letter shows that, although Picino felt uneasy about the public
association of such texts with pagan religion, he 'never disavowed his profound admiration for
Orphic writings and their supposed author' (see 'The Scholastic Background of Marsilio Fieino', in
Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, pp. 35-97).
62 See Kaske, 'Ficino's Shifting Attitude to Astrology'.
63 Pieino's condemnation of the ancient Egyptians' demon-worship, citing Hermes Trismegistus as
witness, in the commentary on St Paul, which he wrote at the end of his life (see Allen, 'Marsilio
Pieino, Hermes Trismegistus and the Corpus Hermeticum', p. 44), far from being a reversal of his
earlier attitude, is no more than a fulfilment of the promise given in the closing lines of the De
vita aditus comparanda, in true syncretic spirit, that at a more appropriate time he would show
'how impure was the superstition of the heathen but how pure was the piety of the Gospel' (Three
Books on Life, p. 393).
64 Kaske calls this unsent Apologia a 'final tergiversation' (p. 374). Most scholars have regarded
it as vindictive and regrettable. Even Raymond Marcel felt that Fieino wrote it 'en des termes qui
[... ] entachent quelque peu sa memoire' (pp. 558-59). The text was not brought to light till the
eighteenth century or published till 1859. See Supplementum Ficinianum, II, pp. 76-79 and CXLI.
65 See Frank La Brasca, 'Combats pour l'ame: les deux "theologies" de Savonarole et Ficin', in
Savonarole: Enjeux, debats, questions, ed. by Anna Fontes and others (Paris: Presses de la
Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1997), pp. 199-221 (pp. 220-21).
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS 49

De vita crelitus comparanda, and similar disclaimers, should have been

enough to draw a dividing line that would assure him a working
arrangement with the Church authorities and public acceptance; but it was
not enough.66 No sooner was the book in circulation than a complaint was
made to Innocent VIII and Marsilio busied himself for nine months, in
combative spirit, to clear his name, till Ermolao Barbaro finally informed
him that he had been successful in persuading the Pope in his favour. 67 For
the next two years or so, as the writings of 1492 clearly show, Ficino
remained in assertive mood, perhaps reflecting a wishful conviction that he
had been successful in obtaining the desired seal of approval for his astral
therapy. It was not to be. The tide of events turned strongly against him,
and with it, despite his apologetic letter to Poliziano, the tide of established
opinion. The devout Marsilio was to remain misunderstood and tainted
beyond the grave with the suspicion of illicit demonic practice.
He nonetheless enjoyed wide renown as a philosopher and bastion of
Christian morality. From Paris a devout Catholic humanist like Robert
Gaguin could in 1496 both echo Pico's assault on astrology and praise
Ficino's achievements in the same spirit of admiration, without a mention of
suspicion.68 For Marsilio's biographer Corsi he was an established
campaigner against astrologers, whose demonic interests were far from
suspect, for 'he had a unique and divine skill in magic, driving out evil
demons and spirits from very many places and putting them to flight'. 69

66 'Finally, if you do not approve of astronomical images, albeit invented for the health of
mortals - which even I do not so much approve of as report - dismiss them with my complete
permission and even, if you will, by my advice. At least do not neglect medicines which have been
strengthened by some sort of heavenly aid, unless perhaps you would neglect life itself' (Three
Books on Life, pp. 239-41).
67 The Apologia to the three Pieros was sent on IS September 1489- The following day saw the
composition of a similar letter to three other friends (Three Books on Life, pp. 402-05). Ficino
saw to it that Lorenzo was able to read the work under attack in a fine manuscript prepared at
the expense of Filippo Valori whose generosity also permitted the publication on 3 December of
the De vita together with the two apologetic letters just mentioned. Marsilio's correspondence
remains as a striking testimony to the trouble taken to give this work the widest possible
publicity: copies were sent to friends and acquaintances in a position to plead his cause with the
Pope and influential churchmen, and on every occasion he was at pains to stress his orthodoxy
and Christian piety (see Opera, I, fols 904, 905, 910, 911, 912). In a letter of 27 May 1490 to
Antonio Calderini, for example, he insists: 'Quicunque non perturbata mente, sed iudicio sano
nostra legerit, plane perspiciet, quam sincero consilio, quam pia mente, quanta religionis
veneratione conscripserim' (fol. 910). The letter from Ermolao Barbaro is dated I June 1490 (see
fol. 912).
68 See Roberti Gaguini Epistole et Orationes, ed. by Louis Thuasne, II (Paris: Bouillon, 1904). A
letter to William Hermann of 16 September 1496 (pp. 22-39) rehearses some of the arguments of
the Disputationes; another to Ficino of I September (pp. 20-22) attests the latter's considerable
fame in Paris.
69 Letters, III, p. 145.
 REMO CATANI
5°

Equally biased are the die-hard astrologers in the opposite camp, such as
Lucio Bellanti and Luca Gaurico, who ignore his attacks and cite him in
their own favour.7o But there were other admirers, especially in France, who
evidently felt uncomfortable with Ficino's treatment of talismans and astral
magic. In presenting the Pimander and Asclepius to a bishop in 15°5,
Lefevre d'Etaples felt obliged to add a commentary deprecating the statue-
animating passage and to tone down Marsilio's exaltation of operative
magic.71 Symphorien Champier, a life-long admirer of Ficino, who devoted
much of his time to popularizing his writings and ideas in France at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, goes further. In his eyes, Marsilio has
established himself without any doubt as a pious opponent of astrological
abuse, but when he comes to consider the De vita caditus comparanda there
is no question of justifying it as dealing with natural forces. Rather, the
defensive offer in the Ad lectorem to give up talismans is accepted: he must
have been giving the opinion of Plotinus, for this is the only explanation
which for Champier is compatible with Ficino's Disputatio.72
Talismans are clearly the stumbling block. They met with general approval
only among medical practitioners,73 but managed to polarize established
Catholic opinion which saw them very differently. The militant Gian
Francesco Pico was less influenced than Champier by Ficino's reputation and
association with his uncle Giovanni Pico, and less willing to give him the
benefit of the doubt. In the seventh book of his De rerum praenotione (15°3)
he had no hesitation in exposing the ambiguity and danger of Marsilio's
position. For Gian Francesco, he had overstepped the mark in the De vita

70 Bellanti also reminds his readers of the De vita 'ubi non modo de astrologia sed magia, quod
maius est, diffuse tractat'. See Lucii Bellantii responsiones in disputationes Ioannis Pici Mirandulae
comitis adversus astrologos, (Florentiae, 1498), fols 9i-v (p. 171 in the Basel 1554 edition); Lucae
Gaurici Opera omnia, I (Basileae, 1575), fol. 6.
71 See Castelli, p. 34; D. P. Walker, 'The "Prisca Theologia" in France', Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes, 17 (1954), 204-59 (p. 238); also Walker, The Ancient Theology, pp.
63-131.
72 See Simphoriani Champerii Opus de quadruplici vita videlicet de vita sana~ longa~ celitus
comparanda et supracelesti (Lugduni, 1507)' In Book III. 4 of this work, clearly modelled on
Ficino's, Champier quotes verbatim the whole of the belligerent invective which had been sent to
Ippoliti (fol. c6r). In III. 10, 'De fabrica imaginum astronomic arum et ad quid valeant secundum
christianos et catholicos' (fols d3r-v), he expounds the orthodox Christian attitude of disapproval
towards talismans which can only achieve effects demonically (fol. d3r); hence his acceptance of
Ficino's offer: 'Marsilius imagines astronomicas potius enarrat quam affirmat id quem libellus ille
quem contra astrologorum iudicia edidit luculentissime ostendit' (fol. d3 V). On Champier see
Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, pp. 167-69; Zanier, pp. 81-94.
73 See Hieronymi Torrella Valentini Opus preclarum de imaginibus astrologicis non solum
medicis verum etiam litteris viris utile ac amenissimum (Valentie, 1496) where, despite his
submissions to theologians, there is little doubt of Torrella's conviction that talismans are effective
and acceptable in medicine. Also Iohannis Ganiveti Epistola astrologie defensiva (Lugduni, 1508)
where Ganivet responds to the cavilling criticisms of 'theologelli astrologiam damnantes' by
extolling astrology's value in medicine (fol. a2r). Even Giovanni Mainardi, co-editor of Pico's
Disputationes, proposed magico-astrological medical practices (see Zambelli, p. 86).
 THE DANGER OF DEMONS

caditus comparanda, and neither his unacceptable Ad lectorem nor his anti-
astrological writings could hide this fact.74 It is certainly true that his uncle
Giovanni reacted very differently in the opening book of his massive
confutation, where he diplomatically accepted Ficino's explanation in his
letter of August I494, presented him as an enemy of astrologers and painted
an intimate picture of Ficino, Poliziano, and himself making fun of astrology
in their friendly conversations, but we should not forget that this was
followed by an uncompromosing condemnation of talismans.75 Considerably
more significant, however, is Pico's earlier condemnation, decrying talismans
as anti-Christian, in a passage of the Heptaplus (I489) which warns against
the delusions of astrology and seems to refer to the De vita caditus
comparanda which appeared in the very same month.76 Marsilio's tentative
move to rehabilitate astral magic encountered firm opposition from the
outset, not just from faceless curial watchdogs, but from independent
champions of righteousness who commanded public attention. Pico's
condemnation is, not surprisingly, echoed by Savonarola in the Trattato
contra li astrologi (I497),77 and that pillar of Christian piety, the Mantuan
Carmelite Battista Spagnuoli, having, in his De patientia (I498), denounced
talismans and the depraved contemporaries who have seduced many through
secret diabolic pacts, goes on to say that he would rather be ill than healthy
through an affront to Christ.78 For those at the forefront of Catholic

74 See Gian Francesco Pico, Opera omnia (Basileae, 1573), fols 668-69. For a full consideration
of his condemnation, see Walker, Spiritual and Demonic Magic, pp. 147-49.
75 See Disputationes, I, 60-62.
76 See Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Heptaplus, II. 7, in De hominis dignitate, Hep tap Ius, De
ente et Uno, e scritti vari, ed. by E. Garin (Florence: Vallecchi, 1942), pp. 242-45: 'Quare neque
stellarum imagines in metallis, sed illius, idest Verbi Dei imaginem in nostris animis reformemus;
neque a caelis aut corporis aut fortunae, quae nec dabunt, sed a Domino caeli (... J quaeramus' (p.
244). The first edition of the Heptaplus probably appeared in early September 1489 (see p. 32).
Charles Trinkhaus sees the Disputationes as a development of this passage (see 'L'Heptaplus di
Pico come sommario tematico e concordanza del suo pensiero' in G. P. della Mirandola:
Convegno internazionale di studi nel cinquecentesimo anniversario della morte (I494-I994).
Mirandola, 4-8 ottobre I994 (Florence: Olschki, 1997), I, 1°5-25).
77 See Tractato contra Ii astrologi (Florentiae, s.d.), III. 7, d8r-d9Y: 'havendo Dio instituito el
modo naturale di sanare Ii corpi infermi per Ie cose naturali mediante la scientia della medic ina
appare che tucte Ie observationi di certi astrologi che fanno figure di stagno, 0 di piombo a certi
effecti (... J sono cose diabolice & da fuggire da ogni christiano' (also in G. Savonarola, Scritti
filosofici, ed. by G. Garfagnini and E. Garin, I (Rome, 1982), p. 368). Vasoli ('Le debat sur
l'astrologie', p. 32) sees this as a denunciation of Ficino's amulets and talismans. The accepted
date of the Trattato is 1497, but it is likely that an earlier version was in circulation before this
(see Catani, 'Girolamo Savonarola and Astrology', pp. 85-86).
78 See Reverendi Fratris Baptiste mantuani Carmelite de patientia aurei libri tres (Lugduni, 1498),
fo1. C7Y: 'hac nostra tempestate plerosque videmus his malis artibus depravatos clam inita cum
diabolo amicitia quamplurimos seducere, et gravissimis erroribus animas implicare; nos autem
quibus propositum est nunquam a catholic a puritate discedere, talia floccipendimus, eligentes nos
magis semper egrotare, quam cum salvatoris contumelia sanos esse'. The first draft of De patientia
can be dated to around 1485; the condemnation of medical talismans was probably added
following the furore over the De vita (see Zambelli, p. 88, note 40)'
 REMO CATANI

orthodoxy, the danger of demons was to be shunned above all else.

Run-of-the-mill astrologers were not inclined to disagree. They felt
threatened by the now widespread campaign against astrology, which Ficino
had opted to join, and were in equal measure suspicious of the
Neoplatonists' sympathetic magic which was alien to their practices. The
abhorrence of talismans and fear of demons was to become as much a trait
of pro-astrological writers as it was of religious zealots.79 Even an arguably
more sophisticated astrologer like Gabriele Pirovano of Milan was incensed,
in his defense of astrology of 1494, at Ficino's attack in his commentary on
Plotinus, which he found contradictory given the fact that Marsilio and the
Neoplatonists were, in his eyes, daemon-worshippers who subjugated the
human mind to the heavens.8o
Faced with such incomprehension and concerted hostility, Marsilio
Ficino's supreme syncretic effort in the De vita could not but fail to
communicate the coherence of his astrological perception of the cosmos and
to establish the legitimacy of his spiritual magic. But his magic was not, as a
consequence, condemned to public oblivion. Thirty-one editions of the De
vita were published across Europe between 1489 and 1647,81 which would
suggest that one thing Marsilio did not fail to do was transmit his
fascination with ancient magical practices, a fascination which continues to
hold sway over present-day scholars.

Cardiff REMO CATANI

79 See typically the Apotelesmata astrologiae (Alcala, 1521), written by Pedro Cirvelo as an old
man on his return to Salamanca after a long period lecturing in Paris where astrology had come
under theological attack in 1494. In this work, aimed at establishing a Christianized astrology
purged of all divinatory vanity according to guidelines followed in Paris, all books of a magical
nature dealing with seals and astrological images are considered suspect and rejected (fol. C7V). On
Cirvelo see Thorndike, v, 275-78. For a later example in a pro-astrological man of the Church,
see the Dominican Tommaso Buoninsegni's apology for Savonarola's Trattato, which precedes his
Latin translation of the work (Hieronymi Savonarolae Opus eximium adversus divinatricem
astronomiam (Florentiae, 1581), pp. 1-27). He defends a watered-down astrology with hardly any
practical applications and states that the greatest danger is to fall into a daemonic pact ('Sed quod
maxi me urget, periculum est patientissimum praesentissimumque in futura praenotione, ne
daemoniorum societatem ineamus', p. 17), and that this is what motivated Savonarola to attack
astrology (p. 18).
80 See De astronomiae veritate opus absolutissimum (Basileae, 1554), p. 239. On Pirovano's
attack on Ficino and Plotinus, see Zanier, 'La medicina astrologica', pp. 73-77.
81 See Supplementum Ficinianum, I, p. LXIV; Castelli, p. I I.