This seventh volume of Marsilio Ficino's letters sheds new light on the life and intellectual development of one of the Renaissance's leading figures. As head of the Platonic Academy in Florence, Ficino helped set the intellectual and spiritual foundations of the Italian Renaissance, the reverberations of which were felt throughout Western Europe for centuries to come. Ficinos letters offer key insights into this philosophical and artistic movement and into the lives of the extraordinary people who led it. Noted correspondents include Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, uncle of the navigator and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, after whom America is named.