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Yes! I was shocked when i learned this. I'm currently working on a Neo Latin translation from Marsilio Ficino. He is famous for catalyzing the Italian Renaissa
by dr_dshiv 5y ago
Yes! I was shocked when i learned this.
I'm currently working on a Neo Latin translation from Marsilio Ficino. He is famous for catalyzing the Italian Renaissance by translating Plato (and many other Greek works) into Latin, making it available in the west after about 1000 years. He also restarted "the Academy." He was a prolific philosopher himself.
The book I'm helping to translate is "De Voluptate", or "On Pleasure." In it, he integrates Epicurean hedonism and Platonic virtue. I mean, after translating all those works himself, I feel like Ficino deserves having his works available to scholars today.
- Causality1 5y agoPlato wasn't translated into Latin until the middle ages?
- dr_dshiv 5y agoUntil c.1450, the only Plato was the Timeaus and some scattered partial translations.
- hihihihi1234 5y agoModern philosophy courses tend to give equal weight to Aristotle and Plato (with a side order of Socrates), but for most of Western history the only pre-Christian philosopher that anyone cared about was Aristotle, who was often simply referred to as "The Philosopher". Plato was largely ignored and forgotten until there was a burst of scholarly interest in him in the 19th century. Source: some random thing I read online somewhere; I might be wrong in the details.
- dr_dshiv 5y agoThis is really not true, sorry. Plato was huge in the Renaissance and his academy ran in Athens (not continuously) from about 400BC-550AD. Platonism had a major influence on the formation and reception of Christianity and Islam, as well. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism
- hihihihi1234 5y agoYou may be right, I'm very far from being an expert. Was just repeating something I read somewhere.