CHAPTER VII.

MARSILIO FICINO AND CRISTOFORO LANDINO.

Platonism—Ficino’s Influence on Religion and Philosophy—The Connection of Platonism with Christianity—Speculation and Reality—Marsilio Ficino and Dante—Ficino’s Works—Book on Christian Learning—Translation of Plato—‘Theologia Platonica’—Translation of Plotinus and Dionysius the Areopagite—Ficino’s Letters on Personal Relations—His Connection with Learned Foreigners—His Manner of life—His Advice to Lorenzo de’ Medici and to Cardinal Raffael Riario—His Picture of a Right Way of Living—Lorenzo’s Connection with Ficino—Cristoforo Landino’s Position and Labours—The Camaldulensian Discussions—Leon Battista Alberti with the Medici Brothers and their Friends in the Abbey of Camaldoli—Various Phases of the Study of Dante—Dante and the Fifteenth Century Biographies of Dante—First Edition of the ‘Divine Comedy’—Landino’s Edition, with a Commentary—Study of Dante in Landino’s Time 20