On Dionysius the Areopagite, Volume 1: Mystical Theology and The Divine Names, Part I (The I Tatti Renaissance Library) Hardcover – Box set, May 4, 2015

This work is a very beautifully done, a well-annotated and scholarly translation of Dionysius the Areopagite's two most famous works, Mystical theology and The Divine Names (part 1). The work actually also included commentary by the great early Renaissance neo-Platonist Marsilio Ficino. So, it's really the work and the commentary and the modern scholar's annotations with dual Latin/English text. The work is highly readable to the non-academic and enlightening. Dionysius' view of mystical theology has much in common with great Sufi Iranian poets like Rumi, Shams-e-Magribi, and others, as well as Iranian Shiite theosophical thinkers, like Mulla Sadra. So, for people interested in comparative theology and theosophy, this is an interesting read.

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Here we have one of the greatest mystic sages of the Renaissance, Marsilio Ficino, translating and commenting upon two key works from late Antiquity's most arcane figure, that shadowy specter full of divine light, Dionysius the Areopagite. In context of its time, Ficino's edtion was ground-breaking considering the Medieval West's absence of the complete works of Plato. Ficino, a competent Platonic scholar with superior insight who himself had translated and commented upon all the dialogues of Plato, no doubt, was in the best position to introduce the Latin West with the first relevant version of Dionysius to date. For instance, of cardinal importance in unlocking a truer understanding of Dionysius' works was the proper interpretation of the dialogue 'Parmenides,' which to any good neo-Platonist contained within itself the definitive universal theology and the highest dialectical method which could raise the soul from sensibles to intelligibles and from intelligibles to the One by way of negation and or affirmation. This interpretation of 'Parmenides' was perfected in the Athenian School by the master of Proclus, Syrianus. The teachings of Syrianus are copiously reproduced and expanded in the works of Proclus his succesor and the theological scholia on 'Parmenides' can be found in that philosopher's masterful exegesis on the 'Parmenides' (see J. Dillon and G. Morrow's edition). Now, we of the modern scholarly consensus largely concede that this Dionysius is not the Dionysius of the first century who was according to Acts 17.34 converted by St Paul and later martyred according to Christian tradition. This is important to understand for many reasons but especially in the case of Ficino's edition, which has critical knowledge of Plato, which makes it better than the Medieval versions while demonstrating the contemporary lack of critical knowledge on the person of Dionysius and his place in history and so is not as good as the modern versions which seperate the Dionysius of the Bible and tradition from the historical psuedo-Dionysius who wrote at the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 6th century. This lack of critical analysis shows St Dionysius of Athens to be the patriarch of a Christian-Platonism during the 1st century and thus influencing both Christian and non-Christian Platonists for centuries after. Rather, it was the converse: the psuedo-Dionysius, according to the modern hypothesis, was a Christian student of Proclus at the Athenian School who donned the psuedonymn after the great Dionysius converted by St Paul. Thus, sometimes in Ficino's works you will see the attribution of Christian-Platonism given to St Paul (which in some ways may be true) and Dionysius who, upon this model, also influenced thinkers like Plotinus and Proclus later on. Nonetheless, this version is an outstanding English translation of Ficino's Latin rendering of Dionysius' Greek; and the insights of Master Ficino are timeless and are a perennial well-spring of wisdom and inspiration. For anyone interested in mysticism, neo-Platonism or Scholasticism, this two volume set from the I Tatti Renaissance Library is a definite recommendation.

This book, along with the other Ficino commentaries published by I Tatti is intelligent, erudite and nourishing food for the intellect.