This collection of essays grew of itself from the initial wish to mark the 500th anniversary of Ficino’s death (especially as the 500th anniversary of his birth went unmarked in 1933, since when, thanks to Professor Kristeller’s pioneering work, Ficino’s name is now widely known as the very centre of the Florentine Renaissance). When the material on this much-loved man was finally collected together, the extraordinary amount and range of his writings and influence was revealed, and I am delighted to have brought together such a fund of information and inspiration concerning a man whose relevance to the 21st century and the third millennium is thus apparent — as reviewers have remarked.
