Chapter 2 Matter as a Mirror: Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance ...

Matter as a Mirror 87
only the qualities, but also their shape to other bodies which act as screens. A
prodigious consequence of this materialist theory of vision (which dates back
to the Epicureans) is that we can see in the dark. 128 Here, Ficino refers to the
theory of vision advanced by Lucretius, who had maintained that all objects
continuously emit tiny material films that make them perceptible: “It is established,
then, that these films […] are moving about everywhere, sprayed and
scattered in all directions.” 129 It is therefore by no means surprising if Ficino
maintains in his Commentary on the Sophist that “matter probably proceeds
even farther than the shape mingled with it.” 130
One of the choice screens or mirrors for these little images, the socalled
eidola, is the human imagination, the faculty mediating between the
senses and reason. 131 In his influential work on prophetic dreams, Synesius of
Cyrene had assumed that such images were still lingering around even after
their emission from sensible objects, leading a sort of afterlife, waiting for a
suitable screen where to recover. (The Aristotelian doctrine that identifies the
shadow with a reflection that has failed to find a mirror is conducive to such an
idea.) According to Synesius, the human imagination (again a mirror of some
sort) was precisely such a chosen place of rest (domicilium) for idola, because
here they recovered and regained their strength. Even more amazingly, the
images of things to come, too, were to be caught in that faculty. 132 Synesius’
128 On this, see Allen (1989) 185–186 with references.
129 Trans. Lucretius (1994) 101; De rerum natura IV 240. Mirrors act as repellent
bases from which these films are constantly bouncing off: De rerum natura IV 150. On
the rather elusive distinctions between the different ancient concepts of vision and Ficino’s
precarious relationship to Lucretius’ materialistic theory of vision, see Allen (1989)
193–195, with references.
130 Ficino (1989) 275: “Proinde probabile videtur ulterius quidem materiam proce-
dere quam figuram materiae mixtam.”
131 See Ficino (1989) chapt. 5.
132 Synesius, De insomniis reads in Ficino’s translation OO 1976.2: “Ab omnibus, qui
in natura comprehenduntur sive sine sive in praesentia, sive facta fuerit in praeterito,
sive futura dicantur, nam hi sunt quidem existentiae modi: idola profluunt, et ab eorum
substantia iugiter evibrantur, si enim sensibile quolibet est eidos id est species in materia,
cum materia simul extenso, deprehendimus autem ex composito materiam foras effluere,
ratio certe dicat. Formarum quoque naturam extrinsecus per idola derivari, ut ex utraque
parte ea quae in generatione versatur, ab ipsa entis dignitate degenerent. Omnium vero,
quae diximus idolarum a rebus ubique manantium spititus ipse phantasticus speculum
est certe clarissimum. aliter enim circumeuntia, et a statu labentia, tum in indefinitam
essendi tum quia a nullo entium cognoscuntur, cum primum irretinetur in spiritus ani-