Platon, Opera latina a Marsilio Ficino. Veneția, Bernardinus de Choris, Simon de Luere, Andreas Torresanus, 1491. 2°

Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Italian philosopher, linguist and theologian, was one of the most important exponents of the Florentine Renaissance and Neoplatonism. His name is linked, among other things, to the founding of a Neoplatonic academy near Florence in 1462, and to the first translation and edition of Plato's complete writings in 1484. He is considered to be the main person responsible for the spread and success of the ancient philosopher's works in Renaissance and modern Europe.

Ficino began work on the translation of the Platonic corpus at the request of Cosimo de Medici (1389-1464), the de facto leader of Florence and his patron, in 1463. After translating Plato's Dialogues in the 1460s, Ficino went further with his passion for the “divine Plato”. In 1482, he had published the Platonica theologia, in which he set out to demonstrate the harmony between Christian theology and Platonism; an intellectual symbiosis that strongly impacted the European philosophical landscape for at least two centuries. Moreover, his translations of Plato and Plotinus remained in intense use until the time of Samuel von Brukenthal, with multiple reprints in various European cities such as Basel, Paris and others.

This second edition of Plato's Works, Venice 1491, brings together the most important Renaissance interpretation of Platonism with the fundamental texts, translated by Ficino himself from Greek into Latin from personal manuscripts and from others provided by Cosimo de Medici. The importance Ficino attached to the Platonic works also extended to their printing, and he declared himself satisfied with the 1491 edition, which was superior to the 1484 edition in terms of the printing accuracy.

The text is arranged in two columns of 62-63 lines each. It is embellished with many initials ornamented by hand in red ink. The binding of the copy in the Brukenthal Library is also special. Firstly, it is either contemporary with the incunabulum or slightly more recent, dating from the 16th century. It is made of wood wrapped in leather and decorated by pressing with a number of borders and elements imitating the plant world. It is fitted with metal locks, also elegantly decorated.

As for the contents of the volume, on the inside of both covers there is a leaf from a medieval manuscript with neumes (musical notes). On the first page one can find the poem, the praise of Naldus Nandius (intellectually formed by Marsilio Ficino) towards the initiative of editing and translating the entire works of the famous ancient philosopher. This section is followed by Ficino's dedication to Lorenzo de Medici and a table of contents. Apart from the entire extant works of Plato and M. Ficino´s commentaries, the edition contains a biography of the Greek philosopher and Ficino's Platonic Theology. At the end of the book there is a colophon with the names of the printers, as well as the exact place and date of its printing, 13 August 1491.