FICINUS, MARSIILIUS, a celebrated Italian, was born at Florence in 1433, and educated at the expense of Lorenzo de' Medici. He attained a perfect knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues, and became an eminent philosopher, physician, and divine. He was in the highest favour with Lorenzo and Cosimo de' Medici, who appointed him a canon of the cathedral church of Florence. He applied himself intensely to the study of philosophy; and whilst others were striving who should be most deeply read in Aristotle, then the only philosopher in fashion, he devoted himself wholly to the study of Plato. He was indeed the first who restored the Platonic philosophy in the west; and for this purpose he translated into Latin the whole works of Plato. He next translated Plotinus; and afterwards the works, or at least part of them, of Proclus, Jamblicus, Porphyrius, and other celebrated Platonists. In his younger days Ficinus lived like a philosopher; too much so indeed, if it be true, as is said, that he did so to the neglect of piety. However, on the arrival of Savonarola at Florence, Ficinus went, with all the world, to hear his sermons; and whilst he attended them for the sake of the preacher's eloquence, he imbibed a strong sense of religion, and henceforward devoted himself more especially to its duties. He died at Correggio in 1499; and, as Baronius assures us, upon the testimony of authors whom he thinks credible, appeared immediately after his death to his friend Michael Mercatus, to whom, it seems, he had promised to manifest himself, in order to confirm what he had taught concerning the immortality of the soul. His writings, sacred and profane, which are very numerous, were collected and printed at Venice in 1516, at Basil in 1561 and 1576, and at Paris in 1641, in two vols. folio. Twelve books of his epistles, amongst which are many treatises, were printed separately in folio at Venice in 1495, and at Nuremberg in 1497, in 4to.