Louis Le Roy’s Sympose de Platon and Three Other Renaissance Adaptions of Platonic Eros

This essay considers commentaries on and translations of Plato’s Symposium (by Marsilio Ficino, the Henri Estienne-Jean de Serres team, and, preeminently, Louis Le Roy) as well as an influential Neoplatonic passage from Baldassar Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano to explore some of the implications of, and dynamics behind, the heterosexualization of Platonic eros in the Renaissance. Focusing on the specific work done by different texts in particular contexts rather than homogenizing the translation of pederastic eros, the essay contributes to a critical genealogy of heterosexuality. Links between Le Roy’s effort and the cultural and political ambitions of the French monarchy receive particular attention.