Texts of Orphic Hymns

Ficino's original Latin translation has not survived, so we have relied on the version in Ilana Klutstein, Marsilio Ficino et la Théologie Ancienne: Oracles Chaldaiques, Hymnes Orphiques, Hymnes de Proclus (Florence 1987), 21-52. This anonymous15^th c. Latin translation of the Greek appears in Biblioteca Laurenziana MS 36.35, fols. 1-23v. Sebastiano Gentile has attributed the translations to Janus Lascaris, in Marsilio Ficino e il ritorno di Platone, Mostra di manoscritti, stampe e documenti, 17 maggio-16 giugno 1984, ed. S. Bentile, S. Niccoli, and P. Vitti (Florence 1984), 25-27.

Orpheus redivivus: The Musical Magic of Marsilio Ficino

Angela Voss

In a letter to Paul of Middelburg, written when he was nearly sixty, Ficino looks back over the great achievements of the Florentine Renaissance: "This age, like a golden age, has brought back to light those liberal disciplines that were practically extinguished: grammar, poetry, oratory, painting, sculpture, architecture, music and the ancient singing of songs to the Orphic Lyre".