Beyond Marsilio Ficino? Judah Abarbanel, Francesco Cattani da Diacceto, and the Renaissance Convivium

This article explores Judah Abarbanel’s interpretation of the Platonic myth of Eros’s birth at the feast for Venus’s nativity in his Dialoghi d’amore, suggesting that Judah presents his exegesis as a critique of the one given by Marsilio Ficino in his Commentarium in Convivium Platonis de amore. I will show that Judah reads Ficino’s interpretation of the myth, as well as the allegorical images in Giovanni Pico’s Commento sopra una canzona di Girolamo Benivieni, in light of Francesco Cattani da Diacceto’s De pulchro.