First Hebrew edition. 15 pp., 96 ff., quarto, 220:140 mm., wide margins, light age staining. A very good copy bound in contemporary boards, rubbed.

First Hebrew edition of Dialoghi di Amore, the philosophical discourse on the subject of love by Judah (Leone Ebreo, Judah the Jew) Abrabanel (c. 1460 - after 1523), son of Don Isaac Abrabanel. Dialoghi di Amore was one of, if not the most popular philosophical works of the Renaissance.

Dialoghi di Amore was written about 1501-02, but not printed until 1535, when a friend, Mariano Lenzi, rescued it from where it was buried, and had it published. Although a philosophic work, it is written, apropos of the conventions of the time, as a romantic fiction. The Dialoghi consists of three Platonic dialogues between Philo (the lover) and Sophia (wisdom). The first dialogue is a discourse on the difference between love and desire, and the various types of love; the second how the principle of love permeates all existence, human, animal, and even inanimate; the third and longest dialogue discusses the love of God (Amor Dei), which permeates all of existence. In the last dialogue beauty is defined, and the nature and activity of the soul is addressed, and the ideas of Plato discussed. It is Abrabanels belief that love is the source and primary force of the world. The Dialoghi contains numerous stories from classical mythology.

The Dialoghi was published in Italian five times in twenty years, and, to 1607, there were twelve Italian and thirteen translations. There were also four Italian and three French editions in the sixteenth century. Recent evidence supports the theory, previously rejected, that the Dialoghi was written in Hebrew. Nevertheless, a Hebrew edition, as Vikuach al-ha-Ahavah, did not appear until 1871. The Dialoghi was not popular with Jews for a number of reasons, not least its inclusion of pagan myths.

Hebrew Description

מאת ... דון יהודה בן יצחק אברבנאל ז"ל. יוצא לאור בפעם ראשונה בשפה עברית מתוך כ"י הנמצא באוצר הספרים של ... ר' נפתלי הירץ גינצבורג בפאריז. ונלוה לו תולדות המחבר, מאת דוד גארדאן ...

EJ; JE; Waxman, II pp. 257-59; Zinberg, IV pp. 15-24; Bibliography of the Hebrew Book 1470-1960 #000106681