Abstract
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) are habitually seen as the twin stars of Neoplatonic Renaissance philosophy, traditionally understood to be in overall agreement. This view is challenged in an analysis of the differences between their interpretations of Plato’s Symposium. Although the two philosophers claimed to have found truth under the poetic veil of Plato’s love dialogue, Pico’s truth is not the same as Ficino’s. While Ficino in his Symposium commentary, De amore (in Latin) or Dell’amore (in Italian), underlines the importance of a personal love relationship between men for ascent to the higher realm, Pico finds Ficino’s interpretation of the most sacred passages of Plato’s Symposium utterly profane and lacking in precision.
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