'Selecta colligere': Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance Reading Practices

This essay provides a contextualised analysis of a set of texts that Marsilio Ficino collected in one of his extant working notebooks-Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 92-and probably used as a textual basis for his Commentary on Plato's Symposium (1469). In this context, I will discuss Ficino's treatment of his sources, investigating specific facets of his reading and excerpting practices. Special emphasis will be placed on the Latin section of the manuscript, containing a set of hitherto unexplored excerpts from Plotinus's Enneads. The study of this aspect of Ficino's work aims to shed light on his methodology as well as on his philosophical outlook. More generally, the article will provide further information on Renaissance reading practices. More specifically, it will offer new insight into the study of the genesis of Ficino's commentary.