"Amoris fulgoribus ego accensus, amorem vobis praedico". L'Oratio in Convivium Platonis di Cornelio Agrippa

A small volume containing ten orations held by Cornelius Agrippa on different occasions was published in 1535, the year of the philosopher's death. The first oration is the prolusion to an academic course devoted to Plato's Symposium, which the author is likely to have given at Pavia in 1512, at a time when university teaching dealt almost exclusively with Aristotle's thought. The text echoes Ficino's De amore, but it skilfully harmonizes biblical references and ancient sources with authors dear to the chivalric literary tradition, such as Dante and Petrarch through to Mario Equicola. It also contains an explicit reference to De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus and ends with a discussion on themes that confirm the precocious 'theological' inspiration of Agrippa's thought.