Commentary On Plato S Timaeus

Pythagorean harmonic theory, as well as questions about the way in which the World Soul knows both Forms and the visible reality that constitutes its body. This part of Proclus' Commentary is particularly responsive to the interpretive tradition that precedes it. As a result, this volume is especially significant for the study of the Platonic tradition from the earliest commentators onwards." --Book Jacket.

Marsilio Ficino, a leading scholar of the Italian Renaissance who translated all the works of Plato into Latin, examines Plato’s Timaeus, the most widely influential and hotly debated of the Platonic writings. Offering a probable account of the creation and nature of the cosmos, the discussion incorporates such questions as What is the function of arithmetic and geometry in the design of creation? What is the nature of mind, soul, matter, and time? and What is our place in the universe? To his main commentary Ficino adds an appendix, which amplifies and elucidates Plato’s meanings and reveals fascinating details about Ficino himself.

The first study in its entirety of this fourth-century Latin commentary on Plato's Timaeus, also addressing the Latin translation.

In the 4th century CE, Calcidius translated into Latin an important section of Plato’s Timaeus, complemented by commentary and organized into coordinated parts. Its organization subsequently informed the sense of macrocosm and microcosm—of the world and our place in it—which is prevalent in western European thought in the Middle Ages.