(...) The Platonic theory of personal love is developed in the "Phaedrus". Here, centered on the analysis of attraction to the beauty of human forms, Plato explores (with his dialogical-dialectical method) the issues of the nature of love, as well as the nature and complex dynamics of the romantic relationship. In the course of the philosopher's reasoning, elements of his thought systematically emerge, which favor the examination of his views on the specific and critical issues of pleasure, otherness, and response to love, the character and behavior of the two partners, and the practical evolution of the romantic bond. For Plato, the peculiarity of the attraction exerted by the presence of a human form lies in the fact that it individualizes the dimension of beauty, which expresses the preference of the being seized by love. It is a desire for physical immediacy, but of metaphysical origin, insofar as the beloved person is the bearer of the reflection of ideal beauty, which fascinated the soul of the lover (the one who loves) by gazing at it, during its non-corporeal life. This initial determination of romantic emotion suggests the orientation of Platonic problematic: The ontological core of the romantic phenomenon must be sought in a space of transcendence where the individual soul, autonomous from the materiality of the body, is attracted by the sight of ideal beauty; thus, the impulse towards beauty is originally manifested. (...) [Excerpt from the text of the preface]