Art of Courtly Love

The Art Of Cortly Love

Written by Andreas Cappallanus between 1174 and 1186 for Marie de Champagne. The work speaks of the relations between the sexes, parodying Ovid’s Art of Love. He provided 31 rules for loving, Amongst his dialogues and advice, he offered the following:

1) Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.

2) He who is not jealous cannot love.

5. That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved has no relish.

11. It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be ashamed to seek to marry.

12. A true lover does not desire to embrace anyone in love except his beloved.

13. When made public love rarely endures.

15. Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.

24. Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.

26. Love can deny nothing to love.

27. A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his love.

28. Nothing forbids one woman from being loved by two men or one man by two women.

Certainly these rules strike us as odd today; their impact on the morality of the 12th century was even more risquй. The Courts of Love held by Countess Marie, the countesses of Norbonne and Flanders and Eleanor of Aquitaine were renowned for their amusements; indeed the ideals of courtly love, while extreme, bore a mark in the chivlaric ideals later expressed in the romances, which in their turn, impacted on the expectations society held for knightly conduct.