Moreover Ficino bound together an enormous circle of correspondents throughout Europe from the Pope in Rome to John Colet in London, from Reuchlin in Germany to de Ganay in France. Published during his lifetime, "The Letters" have not previously been translated into English. The letters in this volume cover the period from September 1477 to April 1478, months which culminated in the outcome of the Pazzi Conspiracy in which Guiliano de' Medici was assassinated in Florence Cathedral, and from which his brother Lorenzo only just escaped. Ficino, a non-political philosopher with no worldly amibions, yet found himself advising the two main factions struggling for political power in Florence. His appeal for respect for both human and divine law, and thus for a reawakening of spirituality was in marked contrast to the prevailing atmosphere of lawlessness and greed. It was symptomatic that those most involved in the Conspiracy included a pope, a cardinal, an archbishop and two priests. In his letter to the Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, Ficino commends him more than any of his correspondents for his humanity.
Indeed, it is the Latin form of this word, humanitas, which Ficino uses to mean "the love of mankind", and speaks of its enormous power. Another aspect of the word humanity is that it is human beings alone who have this power, and the penalty for man is that if he does not set out to realize his "infinite nature", his lot is far worse than that of the beasts. In his letter to Lorenzo de' Medici (the younger), Ficino urges - "approach the task with good hope, free born Lorenzo: far greater than the heavens is He who made you; and you yourself will be greater than the heavens as soon as you resolve upon this task. For the celestial bodies are not to be sought by us outside in some other place; for the heavens in their entirety are within us, in whom the light of life and the origin of heaven dwell."
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