Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palackż University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 23/2020 (International issue no. 7):40-57 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2020.004

Heavenly Journeys: Marsilio Ficino and Girolamo Cardano on Scipio's Dream

Jacomien Prins
Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage

The report of a dream about a disembodied soul in Cicero's Somnium Scipionis (Dream of Scipio) is a narration of a heavenly journey that reflects a belief in the existence of a perfect harmonic world beyond the world of the senses. During the Renaissance it was used by many scholars to understand the transitory nature of earthly life and to find peace of mind. By comparing Marsilio Ficino's interpretation of Scipio's Dream with the one of Girolamo Cardano I will argue in this article that their fictional reports of heavenly journeys led to entirely different interpretations of the meaning of life. While Ficino, in his interpretation, focused on perfect cosmic harmony that he used as a model for a utopian view of a peaceful society, Cardano took the cacophony of his everyday life as point of departure, using the dream as a model that justifies one's self-interest.

Published: March 30, 2020  Show citation

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Prins, J. (2020). Heavenly Journeys: Marsilio Ficino and Girolamo Cardano on Scipio's Dream. Aither, 12(23), 40-57. doi: 10.5507/aither.2020.004
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