106 - Leone Ebreo. Dialogues on Love. Venice: Heirs of Aldo, 1549. A marvelous interweaving of Jewish tradition, Kabbalah, Renaissance Neoplatonism, and Arabic Aristotelianism

Leone Ebreo. Dialogues on Love. Venice: Heirs of Aldo, 1549. A marvelous interweaving of Jewish tradition, Kabbalah, Renaissance Neoplatonism, and Arabic Aristotelianism Leone Ebreo. Dialogues on Love. Venice, heirs of Aldo, 1549. In octavo (150 x 100 mm); 228 leaves. Still bearing the Aldine mark supported by cherubs on the title page and at the end of the volume (the first and last leaves are worn). Late 19th-century binding in brown half-leather with corner pieces and marbled endpapers, a 4-rib spine with a gold-lettered title label (with some flaws and minor losses). Divided into three dialogues between Philo and Sophia that explore the nature, community, and origin of love, combining Platonic philosophy, Arabic Aristotelianism, and Jewish theology. Born in Lisbon, Leone belonged to one of the most illustrious and wealthy Jewish families on the Iberian Peninsula, who were forced to flee in 1492 and settle in Italy. Like many well-educated Jewish figures of the Renaissance, Leone was a physician and achieved great fame, eventually serving as the personal physician to the Spanish viceroy in Naples. A remarkable intertwining of Jewish tradition, Kabbalah, Renaissance Neoplatonism, and Arabic Aristotelianism