Marsilio Ficino was one of the most influential humanist philosophers of the early Italian Renaissance. Though an ordained priest, he was also a practising astrologer and magician whose daunting life's work was to reconcile religious faith with philosophical reason which included integrating pagan magical practice with Christianity. In a lengthy introduction, editor Angela Voss puts Ficino's achievement in context as a complete re-visioning of traditional astrological practice and the beginning of a humanistic and psychological approach that prefigured contemporary holistic approaches to astrology as therapy.