through mutual exchange. The existence of the lovers can thus be
called radically heteronomous:‘The further each of the two lovers is
from himself, the nearer he is to the other, and dead in himself,
revives in the other.’^130
This is, however, not yet the goal of love. After reviving in the
other, the lover also revives in himself through an epistemic insight:
In reciprocal love there is only one death, a double resurrection. For he
who loves dies in himself once, when he neglects himself. He revives
immediately in the beloved when the beloved receives him in loving
thought. He revives again when hefinally recognizes himself in the
beloved (in amato se recognoscit), and does not doubt that he is loved.
O happy death which two lives follow!^131This act of recognition has affinities with the Aristoteliananagnorisis
as well as with the Augustinian recollection. At the same time, it
differs from both, as the self-recognition is strongly performative,
leading to a new life in which the relationship of love is completed.
How does this recognition occur? Ficino considers that there is a
certain likeness between lovers that generates love.‘The same likeness
which compels me to love you also forces you to love me.’^132 In
addition, the event of love is an event of mirroring:
There is also the fact that the lover engraves thefigure of the beloved in
his own soul. And so the soul of the lover becomes a mirror in which the
image of the beloved is reflected. For that reason, when the beloved
recognizes himself in the lover (in amante se recognoscat), he is forced
to love him.^133In other words, each of the lovers possesses afigure of the other.
Looking at one another, the lovers also recognize thefigure of them-
selves in the other. This self-recognition through the other enables the
lover to be fully revived. Ficino’s concept of recognition thus means
an instance of the heteronomous constitution of the self through the
other. While this concept is not religious as such, it employs the bridal
mysticism and the liturgical language of miraculous exchange as its
religious background.
(^130) De amoreII, 8, Laurens, 45; Jayne, 56.
(^131) De amoreII, 8, Laurens, 45–7; Jayne, 56.
(^132) De amoreII, 8, Laurens, 47; Jayne, 57.
(^133) De amoreII, 8, Laurens, 49; Jayne, 57.
The Latin Traditions 81