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Gracious Laughter: Marsilio Ficino's Anthropology*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Marjorie O'Rourke Boyle
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Abstract

Marsilio Ficino's philosophy altered the canon of beauty to include gracious laughter. This significant detail invented a positive, spiritual reflection of the human joy of participation in the cosmic circuit, toward the love of God. It transcended the negative, moralistic denunciation of laughter in the classical and Christian traditions. His contemporaries virtually ignored this genius.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1999 , pp. 712 - 741
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1999

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Footnotes

*

This is dedicated in gratitude to Paul Oskar Kristeller.

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