ABSTRACT
Data on the development of the Italian universities are not easy to find, being in no way as abundant as those for Paris. The slow growth of the Italian universities is explained in part by their adherence to professional training, which was not in great demand, since it could also be met through direct practice and apprenticeship. In many ways description of the academies as institutions is unsatisfactory since it might be assumed that they were organized according to certain formal considerations as were the universities. Marsilio Ficino brought the philosophical development of Quattrocento Italy to its apogee. He justified the promise Cosimo de' Medici saw in him and fulfilled Cosimo's ambition to make Platonism a living intellectual force in Italy. In the Platonic Academy poets and artists followed Ficino's lead and sought to apply his conceptions to poetry, painting and sculpture. The visual arts too were subjected to philosophical speculation.
