Judah Leon Abravanel

Don Isaac eventually took refuge from his financial and political dealings in his other love—literature—while living with his family, with whom he was later reunited in Toledo.

Don Isaac, in a desperate plea, threw himself at the feet of the Catholic Monarchs and begged them to revoke their decree, but to no avail.

To no avail he bribed King Ferdinand and even threatened Queen Isabella that the Jews were the eternal people and therefore could not be destroyed.

A plot was hatched to kidnap Judah's son as an attempt to persuade the Abravanel family to convert to Christianity and, ultimately, to remain in the service of the Catholic Monarchs.

This occurrence was a devastating insult to Judah and to his family, and was a source of bitterness throughout Judah's life and the topic of his writings years later.The Abravanel family chose exile over conversion, although it was not an easy choice, considering that there were not many places in Europe that Jews were welcomed and that living in exile required money, and the Jews were not allowed to take much with them.

There is evidence that he moved from Genoa to Barletta in 1501, where he became a servant of King Frederick of Naples, leaving in 1503 for Venice, where he rejoined his father Dom Isaac.

While in Naples, Judah (apparently overlooking the injuries of the past) became the doctor of the Spanish viceroy, Don Gonsalvo of Cordoba, “The Great Captain.” By 1506, the Neapolitan government was defeated, and Spain gained control of southern Italy.

One source states that allusions made to Saint John the Evangelist in the work indicate his Christian beliefs; however, the tendency of Jewish scholars to cite examples from both New Testament and the Classics was common during this time.

Therefore, this “editorial note” was most likely included to promote the work and to persuade those who harbored hostilities against Jews at that time to purchase the book.

Some say he may have met Giovanni Pico della Mirandola while in Florence and composed for him a discourse on the “Harmony of the Skies.” If so, he also probably associated with Elia de Medigo, teacher of Pico della Mirandola, Yohanan Alemanno (a Jewish writer influenced by the Medici court and mysticism and author of Song of songs), Giovanni Pontano, Mario Equicola and monk Egidio da Viterbo.

The Chancellor of Florence, Marsilio Ficino commented on Plato’s Symposium (1474–75), while Girolamo Benivieni composed his Canzone d’amore (1486), which Pico della Mirandola analyzed soon after.

Abravanel’s Dialoghi is notably one of the first original philosophical compositions to be published in the vernacular (as opposed to Latin).

According to Roth, although Abravenel had ample time to embrace and employ Italian, “the Dialogue read a little stiffly, [therefore] there is good reason to doubt whether [it] represents the original text” (xii).

This was once thought to have been the author's original, or a copy of it; this is no longer accepted, and the text corresponds very closely to the 1568 Spanish translation.

[2] This translation was likely produced in order reclaim Abravanel's Jewish identity and to encourage Spanish-speaking diaspora communities and as an appeal to the Spanish king to remember and reconsider the situation of the Sephardic exiles.

Happiness is the next topic of discussion, and the two determine that it exists not by gaining or enjoying a possession but rather in wisdom, when virtue is assumed.

At this point, Philo tells her that the hour is drawing late and she must rest while “my mind keeps it usual anguished watch.” However, she is not satisfied to end the discussion yet.

As the translation by F. Friedeberg-Seeley and Jean H. Barnes in The Philosophy of Love reads, God decides to set out its universality first.

For love (with knowledge, which it presupposes) is found to be of three kinds: natural (in lifeless things), sensitive (in animals), and rational-voluntary (in [humans]).

After Philo apologizes for not recognizing Sophia because he was struck by her beauteous image, he begins to discuss a comparison between the soul and intellect.

perceives it, and moves it to love.Philo then turns to Sophia's first question, and shows her that love must have been created and is subject to birth, because it presupposes both lover and beloved, from whom it takes its origin.

In answer to the fourth question—who were the parents of love?—Philo tells Sophia of the allegorical meaning of the birth of Cupid, and that of the ancient and mythological figure, Androgynous, and of the creation of Adam and Eve and the fall of man.

The end of love of the universe is union with divine beauty, the final beatitude and highest perfection of all creation.