(“Leone Ebreo”). Dialoghi di Amore (“Conversations on Love”)

ABRABANEL, JUDAH

Casa de’ figliuoli di Aldo (Aldus Manutius)

Venice

1545

Printer’s device on opening and closing leaves.

Adams A-61

Author was the eldest son of Don Isaac Abrabanel and one of the foremost philosophers of the Renaissance. Commonly known as Leone Ebreo, his reputation rests upon the Dialoghi, among the most popular philosophical works of the age. Exiled from Spain, Judah Abrabanel settled in Italy and became one of the major standard-bearers of the Italian Renaissance. His central thesis in the Dialoghi is that love is the foundation of the world and that nothing besides it exists. Judah Abrabanel’s poetic sentiment and orthodox traditions, significantly contribute to the fact that he could not be content with the rationalism of the Aristotelian-Maimonidean system and was more attracted to the mystical world of ideas of the medieval Kabbalah, with its strong inclination toward neo-Platonism. For an analysis of Judah Abravanel’s philosophy in Dialoghi di Amore, see I. Zinberg, vol.IV, pp.15-20. See also; C. Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (1959) pp.128-36. Aldus Manutius, patriach of a dynasty of humanist-printers, revolutionised printing methods. He moved from the Monastic tradition of the the folio format of the book, and was the first to produce books in a pocket-size (8vo), intended for personal usage. His books are particularly prized by bibliophiles.