Gli Asolani are dialogues

Dialogue

Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....

 in 3 books written between 1497 and 1504 by Pietro Bembo

Pietro Bembo

Pietro Bembo was an Italian scholar, poet, literary theorist, and cardinal. He was an influential figure in the development of the Italian language, specifically Tuscan, as a literary medium, and his writings assisted in the 16th-century revival of interest in the works of Petrarch...

 in the language of Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

 and comprise his first important work. Although he had shown a copy to Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia [luˈkrɛtsia ˈbɔrʤa] was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia...

 in 1503, the first edition from 1505 was published by Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius)

Aldus Manutius

Aldus Pius Manutius , the Latinised name of Aldo Manuzio —sometimes called Aldus Manutius, the Elder to distinguish him from his grandson, Aldus Manutius, the Younger—was an Italian humanist who became a printer and publisher when he founded the Aldine Press at Venice.His publishing legacy includes...

, and the second edition was published, after various revisions, in 1530.
They concern a dialogue on love that is supposed to have happened at Asolo

Asolo

Asolo is a town and comune in the Veneto Region of Northern Italy. It is known as "The Pearl of the province of Treviso", and also as "The City of a Hundred Horizons" for its mountain settings.-History:...

 near the court of Caterina Cornaro (Catherine Cornaro)

Catherine Cornaro

Nobil Donna Catherine Cornaro was Queen of Cyprus from 1474 to 1489 and declared a "Daughter of Saint Mark" in order that Venice could claim control of Cyprus after the death of her husband, James II .-Family:She was born in Venice in 1454 and was the daughter of a well-known and powerful family of...

.

Structure and personages

• Libro I - Perottino: the unfortunate lover who expresses love's negativity via psychophysiological analyses - playing on the words amore (love) and amare (bitter) "he argues that love is bitter, that all love causes bitterness, and that all bitterness proceeds from love"
• Libro II - Gismondo: the fortunate lover who refutes Perottino's thesis by expounding love's positivity
• Libro III - Lavinello: who refutes both Perottino and Gismondo by supporting the theory of Platonic love
  Platonic love
  Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...
  
  - contemplating the beautiful ideal present in earthly things; Kidwell summarises this as "In short, good love is that which one can enjoy eternally and bad that which condemns us eternally to grief"