reforming it. Then the soul [B] loves that reformed image [ref-imA] as
its own work.^137This is why lovers see the beloved as more beautiful than he is:
They do not see the beloved in the real image of him received through
the senses, but in an image already reformed by the lover’s soul, in the
likeness of its own innate idea, an image which is more beautiful than
the body itself.^138In reciprocal love, this epistemic and ontological procedure evolves in
both directions. Ficino does, however, extensively discuss the option
that love is not encountered, that is, a situation in which the more
beautiful partner does not involve himself in this process. As‘every-
one loves most, not those who are the most beautiful, but those who
are his own, that is, similarly born’,^139 the more beautiful partner can
see the mirror image or engraving of himself in the other and become
involved in the reformative and recognitive process of love. For
Ficino, the beloved who does not respond to love becomes a mur-
derer, as he takes away the soul of the other without giving anything
in return.^140 While such statements are playful and rhetorical, they
also underline the voluntary nature of the process.
Although Ficino’s astrological explanation of more and less beau-
tiful bodies remains somewhat idiosyncratic, it also continues the
tradition of asymmetry that is typical of processes of mutual recog-
nition. In Bernard’s feudal commendation process, the servant
acknowledges his lord. In Ficino’s explanation of love, the less beau-
tiful partner is thefirst one to fall in love and perform the epistemic
recognition of the other as even more beautiful than he actually is. In
a sense, the less beautiful partner thus behaves like a medieval servant
who recognizes his lord.
Historically, however, this may be a secondary matter. More
importantly, Ficino underlines the equality that is supposed to
apply in loving recognition. Unrequited love is an exception, since
the argument from likeness shows that that both partners normally
love another:‘Likeness generates love...if I am like you, you also are
(^137) De amoreVI, 6, Laurens, 141; Jayne, 114. Cf. the table in section 4.4 in this
volume.
(^138) De amoreVI, 6, Laurens, 141; Jayne, 114.
(^139) De amoreVI, 6, Laurens, 141; Jayne, 114.
(^140) De amoreII, 8, Laurens, 47; Jayne, 56–7.
The Latin Traditions 83