Abravanel, Judah

Abravanel or Abarbanel, Judah,

c.1460–c.1523, Jewish philosopher, physician, and poet, son of Isaac AbravanelAbravanel or Abarbanel, Isaac
, 1437–1508, Jewish theologian, biblical commentator, and financier, b. Lisbon.
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, b. Lisbon; he is also known as Leone Ebreo. He fled (1483) from Portugal to Spain with his father and, after the expulsion (1492) of the Jews from Spain, went to Naples, where he became (1505) physician to the viceroy. Philosophically, Abravanel was influenced by the scholars of the Platonic Academy of Florence, most notably Marsilio FicinoFicino, Marsilio
, 1433–99, Italian philosopher. Under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici, Ficino became the most influential exponent of Platonism in Italy in the 15th cent.
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 and Giovanni Pico della MirandolaPico della Mirandola, Giovanni, Conte
, 1463–94, Italian philosopher and humanist. To many in the age of the Renaissance, Pico was the ideal man, whose physical beauty reflected his inner harmony. He appears in Il Cortegiano of Baldassare Castiglione.
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; in addition, there are clear indications of philosophical influence from MaimonidesMaimonides
or Moses ben Maimon
, 1135–1204, Jewish scholar, physician, and philosopher, the most influential Jewish thinker of the Middle Ages, b. Córdoba, Spain, d. Cairo.
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 and Ibn GabirolIbn Gabirol, Solomon ben Judah
, c.1021–1058, Jewish poet and philosopher, known also as Avicebron, b. Malaga. His secular poetry deals partly with nature and love, but most of it reveals a gloom and bitterness engendered by his tragic life.
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.

In his most celebrated work, the Dialoghi di Amore (published posthumously, 1535; tr. The Philosophy of Love, with introduction by Cecil Roth, 1937), Abravanel gave a classic exposition of platonic love. Holding love to be the dominating and motivating force within the universe, and seeing as its end a union of the lover with the idea of the beautiful and the good as embodied in the beloved, he posited as the ultimate goal of all creation a union with the sublime goodness and intellect that are contained within God. A "circle of love" is thus formed between the universe and its creator in which all things find sustenance and fulfillment. The work had a profound effect upon philosophers into the 17th cent., most notably upon Giordano BrunoBruno, Giordano
, 1548–1600, Italian philosopher, b. Nola. The son of a professional soldier, he entered the Dominican order early in his youth and was ordained a priest in 1572, but he was accused of heresy and fled (c.1576) to take up a career of study and travel.
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 and Baruch SpinozaSpinoza, Baruch or Benedict
, 1632–77, Dutch philosopher, b. Amsterdam. Spinoza's Life

He belonged to the community of Jews from Spain and Portugal who had fled the Inquisition.
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.