The Partial Eclipse of Plotinus in the Middle Ages and his Recovery in the Renaissance

Abstract

This article studies the Plotinian presence in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. First, it accounts for the indirect transmission of the Enneads throughout Medieval times and the editions that reappears in the Renaissance. In this regard, it discusses the presence and influence of Plotinian ideas on Medieval thinkers. Secondly, it examines some main points of Plotin’s thought –the three hypostases and a single universe– and thirdly, presents the profound coincidences between Plotin and Nicholas of Cusa’s ideas, analyzing the pairings enfolding-unfolding, uncontracted-contracted. Finally, it considers the possibility of reuniting both lines in a Grand Unified Theory that goes through all the Middle Ages.

Keywords

• plotin
• nicholas of cusa
• enneads
• hypostases
• universe