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Marsilio Ficino's allegorical reading of optical phenomena:

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Žemla M.

Teorie vědy (Theory of Science)

2020

vol. 42

issue 1

77-93

As a Platonist, Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) was deeply interested in light and its qualities. As a matter of fact, the metaphysics of light is so fundamental for him that it appears, treated more or less systematically, almost in all of his works. As a physician, he was naturally concerned with the human corporeality and with the relation of human body to the physical world, both terrestrial and astral. However, when discussing astronomical and optical phenomena (e.g. refraction of light in water, camera obscura, and concave mirrors), he sees them primarily not as physical realities but as starting points for his allegorical hermeneutics and analogical interpretations. Similarly, when Ficino situates the Sun in the centre of the universe, as its warming heart, ruling king and animating soul, he does so in the context of a metaphysical, rather than cosmological, heliocentrism. Indeed, physical astronomical “ facts” seem generally irrelevant to him, being obscured by their spiritual meaning. Th is becomes especially conspicuous in the perspective that Copernicus arrived at his heliocentric theory most probably with the knowledge of Ficino’s treatise On Sun (De Sole) and even quoting the same sources as Ficino.

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) jako správný platonik projevoval hluboký zájem o světlo, a metafyzika světla proniká celým jeho dílem. Jako lékař se přirozeně zajímal o lidskou tělesnost a vztah lidského těla k vnějšímu světu. Astronomické a optické jevy (lom světla, camera obscura či zápalná zrcadla aj.) však pro něj představují pouze východiska k alegorickým a analogickým interpretacím. Podobně když Ficino umísťuje Slunce do středu světa jako jeho žhnoucí srdce, vladaře a oživující duši, činí tak v kontextu metafyzického, nikoli kosmologického heliocentrismu. Fyzická a astronomická „fakta“ pro něj ve skutečnosti nejsou obecně vzato podstatná, neboť jsou překryta svými duchovními významy. To je zvlášť nápadné, uvážíme- -li, že Koperník ke své heliocentrické teorii dospěl s největší pravděpodobností se znalostí Ficinova pojednání O Slunci.

Valentin Weigel und seine Auslegungen der Genesis

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Žemla M.

Acta Comeniana (International review of Comenius studies and early modern intellectual history)

2014

vol. 28

23-50

An important part of the work of the Lutheran pastor, mystic, theosophist, and Paracelsian Valentin Weigel (1533–1588) consists of interpretations of the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis. The writings, which treat the theme systematically and in extenso, had already caught the interest of modern scholars primarily from the historical and philological perspective, oriented towards determining their disputed authorship. Even now, however, after the publication of the critical edition of Weigel's four major commentaries on Genesis in 2007, these treatises have been little examined from the point of view of their intellectual content, sources, and role in his thought. These questions are addressed in this study. It deals with not only the four systematic commentaries but also with reflections on the same topic in other texts of the author. Weigel, whose discussions in many points foreshadow the theosophy of Jacob Böhme, turns critically against Luther and Melanchthon, and he tacitly draws on earlier interpretations (Origenes, Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus). It is on the basis of the commentaries on Genesis, which Weigel himself considered as fundamentally important from the very beginnings – and, indeed, they have a crucial position within his work – that one can assess not only his natural philosophical concepts but above all the relationship of the "natural" knowledge to the mystical and religious knowledge that are inseparably conjoined in his work. Their convergence does not include empirical examination of the world but rather the correct understanding of the introductory passages of Genesis, which according to Weigel sum up the whole Bible. For Weigel, the knowledge of nature is something essentially different from how it is presented by Paracelsus – to whom Weigel otherwise refers so much. It is man who stands at the centre of Weigel's interests – more exactly man as capax Dei – and he subjects all his theosophical reflections on creation to this mystical perspective.

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1 Acta Comeniana (International review of Comenius studies and early modern intellectual history)

1 Teorie vědy (Theory of Science)

1 2020

1 2014

2 Žemla M.

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Marsilio Ficino's allegorical reading of optical phenomena:

Valentin Weigel und seine Auslegungen der Genesis