On the Nature of Love

On the Nature of Love is showcased in the Spring collection of The People's book Prize and can be voted for until 15 May 2016. // "Ways of falling in love" was one of the topics discussed when nine men gathered at Careggi, outside Florence, on November 7th 1468, to honour Plato's birthday. After the meal, his Symposium was read, and the guests - now reduced to seven - spoke on the nature of love. Other topics they covered include: "It is easy to fall in love. Falling in love. The kinds of people that make us fall in love. The passions of lovers. What lovers seek. The power of Love. The gifts of Love." Ficino, who was also present, recorded what was said, and his report constitutes the text of his commentary to the Symposium. His work was eagerly taken up by court circles throughout Europe and became part of their standard fare for the next two centuries. Writers and artists were inspired by it. The topic of idealised love, so evident in Shakespeare's plays, immediately resonated with the makers and shakers of many countries, particularly Italy, France, Spain, and England.In more recent times, Ficino's commentary has exercised the minds of theologians, philosophers, and psychologists.There is every reason to believe that the influence of this work will continue, for it has rightly been said that love is the secret password to every heart.On the Nature of Love is a translation of Marsilio Ficino's commentary. Although Ficino wrote commentaries to all of Platon's dialogues, he exceptionally wrote two commentaries - Latin and Tuscan - to the Symposium. The Latin version was published in 1484, but the Tuscan version did not appear for another 60 years. The Tuscan version, called Sopra lo Amore, while running broadly parallel to the Latin, presents numerous small divergences from it. A translation of the Latin text, De Amore, was published many years ago and is now difficult to obtain. This edition makes Ficino's Tuscan version available to English readers for the first time. In his preface Ficino introduces his commentary with these words: 'We all love unceasingly in one way or another, but nearly all of us love wrongly.To put us back on the right road, God inspired Diotima, who taught Socrates, who revealed the mystery to Plato, who wrote a book for the Greeks. I have put this book into Latin and into Tuscan, together with my own commentary.'