Zoroaster and Chaldeans · thesis 8>1

Thesis 8>1

Latin

Quod dicunt interpretes chaldei super primum dictum Zoroastris, de scala a Tartaro ad primum ignem, nihil aliud significat quam seriem naturarum uniuersi a non gradu materiae ad eum qui est super omnem gradum graduate protensum.

Copy-text: Farmer 1998, line 24722

English

What the Chaldean interpreters say about the first saying of Zoroaster, concerning the ladder from Tartarus to the first fire, signifies nothing other than the series of the natures of the universe, stretched by degrees from the ungraded level of matter up to that which lies beyond every degree.

Sense checked against farmer1998:24777; reworded throughout to avoid Farmer's phrasing (his 'in gradation extends beyond all grades' becomes here 'stretched by degrees ... up to that which lies beyond every degree'). No divergence in sense.

Translation: machine-drafted 2026-09-26 by TRANSLATOR-T09b; sense checked against farmer1998:24777; awaiting human check

Attribution: Pico's own opinion (section 8>, on the understanding of Zoroaster and his Chaldean expositors) · Pico's stance: endorses

Discussed in

• Giulio Busi and Raphael Ebgi, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola: Mito, magia, Qabbalah (2014)

Mention records in the corpus: 1 (deterministic harvest; see Method).

Farmer's cross-references

• 10>3 Nomina deorum quos Orpheus canit non decipientium demonum, a quibus malum et non bonum prouenit. Sed naturalium uirtutum diuinarumque sunt n
• 5>15 Per extremorum et medii rationem cognoscere possumus conuenienter uniuersi gradus sic in quinque posse diuidi: In super ens, uere ens, non u
• 8>2 Ibidem dico interpretes nihil aliud per uirtutes mysteriales intelligere quam naturalem magiam.