Birth Chart of Marsilio Ficino – an Approximation

The famous translator of the works of Plato, Marsilio Ficino, was born on 19th October, 1433, in Figline, Italy and died on 01 October, 1499. There are several versions of his chart in the astrological literature, all with an Aquarius Ascendant but differing in the exact degree rising. Apparently, these charts are best guesses, based on a letter which Ficino wrote to Giovanni Cavalcanti, stating:

“Saturn seems to have impressed the seal of melancholy on me from the beginning; set, as he is, almost in the midst of my ascendant in Aquarius, he is influenced by Mars, also in Aquarius, and the Moon in Capricorn. He is in square aspect to the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio, which occupy the ninth house. But Venus in Libra and Jupiter in Cancer have, perhaps, offered some resistance to this melancholy nature.”

Ficino got the positions of Venus and Jupiter wrong and apparently corrected his mistake in a subsequent letter about his chart. From his statement, it appears that Saturn must lie around the middle of his rising sign, Aquarius. The Moon is in Capricorn. Mars is in Aquarius (but on the day of his birth Mars was changing signs from Capricorn to Aquarius). Sun and Mercury were in the 9th house. He does not state which house system he was using, but Alcabitius was the standard system in medieval Europe and Regiomontanus was not adopted until late in the 15th century. Here is the modern ephemeris for the period of his birth:

We can see that on October 19th (UT), the Moon traveled between 6 Capricorn 31′ and 18 Capricorn 18′, Mars between 29 Cap 24′ and 00 Aq 06′, and Saturn was at 12 Aquarius 01′. The ephmeris of the time must have had Mars in Aquarius, but the modern calculation gives Mars at the very end of Capricorn at the time of his birth.

Based on Ficino’s comments that both the Sun and Mercury were in the 9th house, we can estimate a time of birth. On the day of his birth, the Sun passed from the 9th into the 8th Alcabitius house at 14:03 LMT. Mercury conjoined the MC at 13:17 LMT, and the midpoint of this 46-minute span is 13:40 LMT, as a likely time of birth (give or take about 23 minutes). In addition, at 13:40 LMT Saturn passed from the 12th house into the 1st. In other words, he was born between 13:17 LMT and 14:03 LMT, a 46-minute range whose midpoint is at 13:40 LMT.

In the chart for 13:40 LMT, Virgo rules the 8th cusp of death, and Mercury lies in the 9th near the MC. By primary motion, the zodiacal degree of Mercury will arrive at the western horizon when Ficino is about 66 years old (by the Naibod key). He died in October of 1499 just before turning 66 years old. If we adjust the time of birth to 13:37 LMT, then the primary direction of Mercury to the Descendant (opposition of the Asc degree) perfects at the time of this demise. This chart also places Saturn in the 1st house conjunct the Ascendant. The resulting chart looks like this:

A reasonable approximation of Ficino’s birth chart, based on his description of the chart and primary directions for the date of his death.