“In the preface to the first volume of Don Quixote, Cervantes refers those who wish to acquire some information concerning love to an Italian treatise by Judah Leo [Judah Leon Abravanel, c.1465-c.1523]. The full title of the book, which appeared in Rome in the sixteenth century, is Dialoghi di amore, Composti da Leone Medico, di nayione Ebreo, e di poi fatto cristiano [Dialogues of Love, composed by Doctor Leon, of Hebrew heritage, and who later became Christian]. There are said to be three French translations of it, but it was only after long searching that I succeeded in finding a copy, at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. It proved to be a strange medley of astrology, metaphysics, theology, classical erudition, mythology, and medieval science. Burton [Robert Burton, 1577-1640], in the chapter on love, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, quotes freely from this work of Leo, whom he names as one of about twenty-five authors who wrote treatises on love in ancient and medieval times.”