Abravanel, Dialogi di amore, Venice, Aldus, 1541, contemporary Parisian brown morocco

Abravanel, Judah (Leone Ebreo). Dialogi di amore, composti per Leone medico, di natione hebreo, et dipoi fatto christiano. (Venice: in the house of the sons of Aldo Manuzio), 1541

The first Aldine printing of Judah Abravanel's treatise on love, composed as a dialogue between Philo and Sophia, a pair of courtiers who represent a philosopher and his pupil, though the playful exchanges between the two reveal the Philo's desire for Sophia. Abravanel (ca. 1465-after 1521) was born in Lisbon to a prominent Jewish family and was the son of a philosopher; he trained as a doctor and attended the Spanish royal family but the Iberian expulsions of the Jews forced his emigration. His Dialogi di Amore were first published posthumously (Rome, Antonio Blado, 1535). The title-page statement of the Aldine edition that Abravanel had converted to Christianity, "dipoi fatto christiano", is dubious, and was not claimed in Blado’s edition.

8vo (161 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-Z⁸ AA-GG⁸ HH⁴: 244 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso. (A few small and light stains.)

binding: Contemporary Parisian brown morocco (167 x 106 mm), by the Salel Binder, arabesque tooling in oxidized silver on covers with a central addorsed CC monogram, within a frame of oxidized silver and blind fillets, spine with later double gilt fillets around bands and small gilt flower stamp, gilt edges, stubs from two pairs of green silk ties. (Ends of spine worn, extremities slightly rubbed, corners bumped.)

provenance: Early manuscript motto in Spanish on rear flyleaf, "Hasta a la muerta Et mas si mas se pueda" — Christie, Manson & Woods, sale of the Mostyn Hall Library, 9-10 October 1974, lot 48, £160. acquisition: Purchased at the Christie's sale. references: UCLA 303; Edit16 26696; Adams A60; Renouard 123/10. For the binding, Salel binder, in older literature called the Fontainebleau binder, see Marie-Pierre Laffitte, Reliures royales du département des Manusrits (1515-1559) (Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2001), p. 22