ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Ficino’s encounter with Plotinus, showing how he became acquainted with the Enneads and why he regarded Plotinus as Plato’s most sublime interpreter. It also analyses the two most controversial aspects of Ficino’s account of Plotinus: his closeness to certain central principles of the Christian religion and his acceptance of some philosophical tenets which belong to later forms of Platonism. It also introduces the following two chapters by discussing why Ficino regarded Plotinus also as a faithful commentator of Aristotle.
