O lásce

The most important philosopher of Medicean Florence in the second half of the 15th century. His programme was the renewal of philosophy and religion, drawing on the sources of ancient Platonism. At the instigation of Cosimo de' Medici, he made the first complete translation into Latin of Plato's dialogues and Plotinus' Enneads. He expounded his philosophy systematically in Plato's Theology of the Immortality of Souls. Ficino's Letters to his Humanist Friends and his Three Books on Life, dealing with health, longevity and the influence of the stars, were widely read. Ficino's work greatly inspired Renaissance literature and painting.

The most original and influential of Ficino's writings was his Commentary on Plato's Banquet, On Love. In a form of imitation of Plato's Symposium, transposed to the setting of Medicean Florence, Ficino here presents his synthesis of Platonism, inspired by pagan and Christian authors of late antiquity, notably Plotinus, Augustine and Dionysius the Areopagite. The central theme of this philosophy is love. Ficino, along with Dante, conceives of it as a divine force that brings the errant human soul to the knowledge of God through the beauty of the beloved. 

Latin-Czech edition.