Pythagoras in the Renaissance: The case of Marsilio Ficino (Examining the cultural environment of late fifteenth-century Florence)

This article discusses the manner in which Ficino employs the figure of Pyt hagoras and various aspects of the Pythagorean tradition in the philosophic al areas of psychology, moral philosophy, and ontology. It also argues that the figure of Pythagoras as prophet was particularly appealing to a Ficino situated in the cultural environment of late fifteenth-century Florence. T ext, culture, and ideology interacted in a complex way: spurred on by his e arly appreciation of Iamblichus's soteriological presentation of Pythagoras , Ficino helped created an ideology in Florence which was receptive to a pr ophetic figure. The piece thus suggests that Ficino viewed a certain segmen t of the history of thought through late ancient, Iamblichean eyes.