The Platonic theory of Ideas, developed in the Republic,
deals with the relationships between the unseen eternal
world and the phenomenal world; the supreme Idea of the
Good was particularly assimilable by Christian philoso-
phers.
In the understanding of medieval and Renaissance
scholars, Platonism often merged with Neoplatonism, the
elaboration of Platonic thought in the later antique world
by PLOTINUSand his followers (see NEOPLATONISM, RENAIS-
SANCE; PLATONISM, RENAISSANCE).
Platonic Academy An informal body of scholars and hu-
manists first assembled in Florence around Cosimo de’
MEDICIafter the Council of Florence (1439). The main in-
fluence was Gemistos PLETHON, who had come to Flo-
rence to represent the Eastern Orthodox Church at that
council. Subsequent leading members of the academy
were Marsilio FICINO, who translated the dialogues of
Plato, POLITIAN, Cristoforo LANDINO, and PICO DELLA MI-
RANDOLA. ALBERTI, MICHELANGELO, and Luigi PULCIwere
all at one time or another members of this or successor as-
sociations (see ORTI ORICELLARI). The main preoccupation
of the 15th-century academicians was the reconciliation of
Christian and pagan philosophy; the method used was
mysticism rather than exact reasoning, and the allegorical
approach derived more from medieval exegesis than from
the approaches that were being developed for contempo-
rary literary criticism.
Platonism, Renaissance To the Middle Ages the main
classical philosopher was Aristotle. His works circulated
in Latin translations, many of them translated from Arabic
versions. The late 13th-century Summa Theologica of
Thomas Aquinas achieved a fusion of Christian and Aris-
totelian ideas that became the basis for subsequent theo-
logical training. The emphasis was on logic and on an
appeal to the subtleties of the intellect. As part of the gen-
eral reaction against medieval ideas, the Renaissance in-
evitably turned to PLATOas a challenge to the dominance
of Aristotle (see ARISTOTELIANISM, RENAISSANCE).
There were two important problems associated with
the study of Plato in the Renaissance. The earliest Platon-
ists were Greeks from Constantinople, whose adherence
to the Orthodox Church (in schism since the 11th cen-
tury) made their ideas suspect to traditionalists in West-
ern Christendom. Furthermore it was difficult to make
direct contact with Platonic texts because the founder of
Platonic studies in Italy, Gemistus PLETHON, was himself
strongly influenced by Neoplatonic ideas. The mysticism
inherent in some, though not the most characteristic,
parts of Platonic philosophy appealed to Renaissance
thinkers. They saw it as the major difference from the ra-
tionalism of Aristotle and it seemed to offer a greater pos-
sibility of reconciliation with Christianity. Moreover it
made a powerful appeal to the emotions.
The influence of Plethon can be seen in his disciples
FICINOand PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA. Their approach was
uncritical and eclectic; their admiration for Plethon
blinded them to the many absurdities and inconsistencies
in his system. They failed to see that Platonic theology was
only a background to Plato’s ethical, political, and educa-
tional theories, and they were thus prevented from using
these theories as a starting point for their own specula-
tions. The allegorizing which was so characteristic of
Byzantine Platonism struck a responsive chord in men
who were already familiar with the method as used by
Christian exegetes.
The contribution of the Renaissance to the serious
study of Plato is now only of historical importance. The
willingness of scholars to accept the amalgam of Near
Eastern theosophy and Neoplatonic mysticism as authen-
tic Platonism made it almost impossible to develop any se-
rious discussion of Plato’s ideas (see NEOPLATONISM,
RENAISSANCE). The most lasting contribution the Renais-
sance Platonists made was in the sphere of translation.
Even after the ALDINE PRESS’s publication of Marcus Musu-
rus’s editio princeps of Plato (1513), the Latin translation
(1482) made by Ficino in 1477 continued to circulate, and
the availability of a complete Plato in the original and in
accurate translation increased the accessibility of authen-
tic texts.
Further reading: James Hankins, Plato in the Italian
Renaissance, 2 vols (Leyden, Netherlands: Brill, 1990; 3rd
ed. 1994); Robert Merrill, Platonism in French Renaissance
Poetry (New York: New York University Press, 1957);
Christine Raffini, Marsilio Ficino, Pietro Bembo, Baldassare
Castiglione: Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Political Ap-
proaches in Renaissance Platonism (New York: Peter Lang,
1998).Platter family Two generations of a Swiss family from
Basle, comprising Thomas Platter the Elder (1499–1582)
and his physician sons, Felix (1536–1614) and Thomas
the Younger (1574–1628). They are remarkable for their
autobiographical records, starting with the elder Thomas’s
memoir (Lebensbeschreibung), written for Felix’s benefit. It
describes his impoverished youth and early struggles
before he became a printer (1536–44) and finally
headmaster (1544–78) of the Latin school in Basle, and
gives an interesting account of day-to-day life during the
Reformation there. Felix achieved his father’s thwarted
ambition to study medicine, and kept journal notes
covering his boyhood and his student life at Montpellier,
though he did not write up his own Lebensbeschreibung
until 1609. Settling (1557) in Basle to practice medicine,
he wrote detailed records of outbreaks of plague there to- Felix encouraged his half-brother, the younger
Thomas, to keep a journal of his travels (1595–1600) after
he had completed his medical studies, and this lively
account of experiences in Spain, France, Flanders, and
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