Dialogues of Love

cannot rise in an instant to this heavenly thought, yet as long as they turn their eyes toward you—illuminated by your ray—they are gradually purified, and make themselves worthy of the high contemplation original: contemplatione. In a Neoplatonic sense, this refers to the soul's intellectual ascent toward divine truth. of your divinity. Recognizing therefore this debt, both common to all and my own, I have done as those do who, unable to satisfy a debt from their own resources, pay with those of others. Desiring to discharge part of this great obligation that I have toward you, and because of the poverty of my own intellect, being unable to send you fruit grown in my own garden, I send it to you grown in the gardens of others.

That is to say, the books of love by Master Leone original: Maestro Leone. Referring to Leone Ebreo (Judah Leon Abravanel), a Jewish philosopher whose Dialogues of Love (c. 1502) explored the intersection of Platonic philosophy and Jewish mysticism. under the title of Philo and Sophia original: Philone & Sophia. The interlocutors of the dialogues; their names literally mean "Lover" and "Wisdom" in Greek.: a chaste subject of love for a chaste lady who inspires love; heavenly thoughts for a Lady who is adorned with heavenly virtue; the highest understandings for a lady full of the highest concepts. Thus I have wished, rather than prolonging the satisfaction of such a debt due to my own poverty, to show you with the work of another the soul I have to satisfy you.

Though I estimate (whenever I think of it) that I make two no small gains at once: to release part of this obligation to you, and to place under obligation to me—if shadows can be so bound—Master Leone. For since I have drawn these divine dialogues of his out of the darkness in which they lay buried, and placed them as if in clear light, and recommended them to the name of so valiant a lady as you are, I believe for certain that he must rejoice exceedingly. He must remain much obligated to me for this, his new splendor and for such high protection. You, therefore, having become as it were the guardian of this work, by directing your ray upon it—as upon a body most fit to receive light—will make it appear more splendid and more miraculous to the world.