The social system of 'courtly love' soon spread after becoming popularized by the troubadours of southern France in the twelfth century. This book codifies life at Queen Eleanor's court at Poitiers between 1170 and 1174 into "one of those capital works which reflect the thought of a great epoch, which explain the secret of a civilization."

The De Amore of Andreas Capellanus (André the Chaplain), composed in France in the 1180s, is celebrated as the first comprehensive discussion of theory of courtly love. The book is believed to have been intended to portray conditions at Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine's court at Poitiers between 1170 and 1174, and written the request of her daughter, Countess Marie of Troyes. As such, it is important for its connections to themes of contemporary Latin lyric, in troubadour poetry and in the French romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Thereafter its influence spread throughout Western Europe, so that the treatise is of fundamental importance for students of medieval and renaissance English, French, Italian and Spanish. In this comprehensive edition, P.G. Walsh includes Trojel's Latin text with his own facing English translation with explanatory notes, commentary and indexes, along with introduction which sets the treatise in its contemporary context and assesses its purpose and importance.

A comprehensive examination of the rituals and philosophies that created and sustained medieval troubadour culture • Debunks the myth of the platonic nature of courtly love, showing the many sexual similarities to the Tantric practices of India • Reveals how the roots of courtly love go back to the matriarchal cultures of neolithic times The widespread turmoil that shook Western Europe as it entered the new millennium with the year 1000 prompted a vast reevaluation of the chief tenets of society. Foremost among these was a new way of looking at love and the place held by women in society. The Christian-inspired tradition that at best viewed women with contempt--and often with outright fear and loathing--was replaced by a new perspective, one in which women enjoyed a central role as the inspiration for all male action. For several hundred years courtly love, with its emphasis on adultery, carnal pleasures, and the power of the feminine, dominated European culture despite its flouting of conventional Christian morality. Medieval historians by and large have tended to regard courtly love as a sterile parlor game for the upper classes. To the contrary, Jean Markale shows that the stakes were much higher: the roots of the ritual re-created here go all the way back to the great mother goddess. In addition, the platonic nature attributed to these relationships is based on a misunderstanding of courtly love; underneath the refined poetry of the troubadours' verses flourished a system of sexual initiation that rivaled Indian Tantra.

One of the great achievements of the Middle Ages, Europe’s courtly culture gave the world the tournament, the festival, the knighting ceremony, and also courtly love. But courtly love has strangely been ignored by historians of sexuality. With Courtly Love, the Love of Courtliness, and the History of Sexuality, James Schultz corrects this oversight with careful analysis of key courtly texts of the medieval German literary tradition. Courtly love, Schultz finds, was provoked not by the biological and intrinsic factors that play such a large role in our contemporary thinking about sexuality—sex difference or desire—but by extrinsic signs of class: bodies that were visibly noble and behaviors that represented exemplary courtliness. Individuals became “subjects” of courtly love only to the extent that their love took the shape of certain courtly roles such as singer, lady, or knight. They hoped not only for physical union but also for the social distinction that comes from realizing these roles to perfection. To an extraordinary extent, courtly love represented the love of courtliness—the eroticization of noble status and the courtly culture that celebrated noble power and refinement

This book offers an overview of the origins, growth, and influence of chivalry and courtly love, casting new light on the importance of these medieval ideals for understanding world history and culture to the present day. Rethinking Chivalry and Courtly Love shows that these two interlinked medieval era concepts are best understood in light of each other. It is the first book to explore the multicultural origins of chivalry and courtly love in tandem, tracing their sources back to the ancient world, then follow their development—separately and together—through medieval life and literature. In addition to examining the history of chivalry and courtly love, this remarkable volume looks at their enduring legacy—not just in popular media but in molding our present-day concepts of human rights, professional ethics, military conduct, and gender relations. Readers will see how understanding the tenets of the chivalrous life helps us understand our own world today.

Reading through clothes reveals that the expression of female desire, so often effaced in courtly lyric and romance, can be registered in the poetic deployment of fabric and adornment, and that gender is often configured along a sartorial continuum, rather than in terms of naturally derived categories of woman and man.

This book contributes to an understanding of the nature of mid-life transitions and crises by focusing on the unique personal meaning of the transitional experience for the individual. There is an implicit structure to the way in which such a transition is experienced by the individual, and this can be made explicit by the techniques and methods of the approach outlined and illustrated in the book. The value of making this structure explicit is that it enables us to understand and assess the nature and dimensions of the transition, whether or not it will reach crisis proportions, and to assess possible intervention strategies. Meaning in Mid-Life Transitions should be of interest to human service practitioners as well as teachers and students of human development and behavior. It evidences an integrative approach and structural framework, including a series of in-depth clinical and research studies.