Abstract

The purpose of the dissertation is to demonstrate that Marsilio Ficino does in fact have a generally coherent theory concerning his notion of spiritus. Although recent scholars have levied charges against the consistency of his theory as it appears throughout his works, textual evidence and analyses indicate that Ficino's notion of a triple spiritus is both a necessary part of his total philosophical system as well as a functionally coherent theory in itself. ;There are several contributing factors as to why these charges could be made against his theory. Firstly, Ficino himself is very inconsistent with his terminology, and his verbal inconsistencies are not limited to his notion of spiritus . Secondly, most scholars focus on the role of spiritus as related to some specific part of Ficino's philosophy, and these specific topis are as wide-ranging as medicine, theology, psychology, cosmology, or even a metaphysics of light. Finally, it is not uncommon for scholars interested in Ficino's medical spirit to fail to notice that Ficino clearly makes a distinction between the corporeal medical spirit and the incorporeal celestial grade of spiritus and that he actually holds to the notion that there are, in fact, three levels which constitute his tripartite spiritus. ;In the first chapter, an overview of some representative recent scholarship concerning the topic of spiritus is presented. Because De vita is Ficino's primary treatise dealing with the spiritus , a summary of this work is provided in the second chapter. The remaining chapters examine the theory of the tripartite spiritus and its relevance to Ficino's positions regarding cosmology, light, the triple powers and changing the forms in objects, the imagination, music, divine ecstasy, and eternity. ;Functionally the tripartite spiritus remains the same in his broader philosophical thinking, even if certain aspects are being emphasized and others are omitted in some particular treatise. Only when the topic of spiritus is examined, textually within the context of his broader philosophical system does it become apparent that Ficino has, or at least aims toward, a reasonably well-developed and coherent theory of a tripartite spiritus