Leone Ebreo (c. 1465–1530)

Portuguese-born Jewish philosopher and physician, the son of Isaac Abarbanel. He lived in Spain but with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 he moved to Italy, where he practised as a doctor. There he fell under the influence of the philosopher Pico della Mirandola and about 1502 he wrote the treatise Dialoghi di amore/Dialogue on Love. First published in 1535 it became a highly influential text for Christian neo-Platonists throughout Europe.

Probably written in Spanish or Hebrew, his Dialoghi di amore was first published in an Italian translation and soon appeared in Latin. Its central doctrine is that ‘in God the lover, the beloved, and their love, are all one and the same,’ and that love, identified with God, is the principle underlying and animating the universe.

Ebreo was born in Lisbon and lived in Toledo in Spain from 1483 until 1492. He died in Naples.