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113-642: The group comprises: "As with the works of the Katherine Group their dissemination seems to have been relatively limited; but the fourteenth-century rhythmical prose treatise A Talkyng of the Loue of God reflects the influence of two Wooing Group works, the Ureisun of God Almihti and the Wohunge ." In the assessment of Michelle M. Sauer: The pieces are written in lyrical prose, and combine COURTLY LOVE imagery of Christ as

226-567: A 1883 article discussing the relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere in Chrétien de Troyes 's Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart ( c. 1181). In his article, Paris outlined four principal characteristics of amour courtois : Paris used it as a descriptive phrase, not a technical term, and used it interchangeably with the phrase amour chevaleresque . Nonetheless, other scholars began using it as

339-474: A bewildering variety of uses and definitions", but nonetheless defended the concept of courtly love as real and useful. E. Talbot Donaldson criticized its usage as a technical term as an anachronism or neologism . Richard Trachsler says that "the concept of courtly literature is linked to the idea of the existence of courtly texts, texts produced and read by men and women sharing some kind of elaborate culture they all have in common". He argues that many of

452-401: A case of love and rule on it based on the rules of love. In the 19th century, historians took the existence of these courts as fact, but later historians such as Benton noted "none of the abundant letters, chronicles, songs and pious dedications" suggest they ever existed outside of the poetic literature. Likewise, feminist historian Emily James Putnam wrote in 1910 that, secrecy being "among

565-410: A coherent idea. D. W. Robertson Jr. said, "the connotations of the term courtly love are so vague and flexible that its utility for purposes of definition has become questionable." John C. Moore called it "a term used for a number of different, in some cases contradictory, conceptions" and called it "a mischievous term which should be abandoned". Roger Boase admitted the term "has been subjected to

678-630: A fair degree of prosperity. Cangrande was admitted to Dante's Paradise ( Paradiso , XVII, 76). During the period of his exile, Dante corresponded with Dominican theologian Fr. Nicholas Brunacci (1240–1322), who had been a student of Thomas Aquinas at the Santa Sabina studium in Rome, later at Paris, and of Albert the Great at the Cologne studium . Brunacci became lector at the Santa Sabina studium , forerunner of

791-469: A happy or amusing ending but one influenced by a Providential will that orders all things to an ultimate good. By this meaning of the word, as Dante himself allegedly wrote in a letter to Cangrande , the progression of the pilgrimage from Hell to Paradise is the paradigmatic expression of comedy, since the work begins with the pilgrim's moral confusion and ends with the vision of God. A number of other works are credited to Dante. Convivio ("The Banquet")

904-470: A larger literate audience. In the high Middle Ages, a "game of love" developed around these ideas as a set of social practices. "Loving nobly" was considered to be an enriching and improving practice. Courtly love began in the ducal and princely courts of Aquitaine , Provence , Champagne , ducal Burgundy and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily at the end of the eleventh century. In essence, courtly love

1017-453: A late 12th-century poem by Peire d'Alvernhe . It is associated with the Provençal term fin'amor ("fine love") which appears frequently in poetry, as well as its German translation hohe Minne . Provençal also uses the terms verai'amors , bon'amors . The modern use of the term "courtly love" comes from Gaston Paris . He used the term amour courtois ("courtly love") in

1130-789: A party of one. He went to Verona as a guest of Bartolomeo I della Scala , then moved to Sarzana in Liguria. Later he is supposed to have lived in Lucca with a woman named Gentucca. She apparently made his stay comfortable (and he later gratefully mentioned her in Purgatorio , XXIV, 37). Some speculative sources claim he visited Paris between 1308 and 1310, and other sources even less trustworthy say he went to Oxford ; these claims, first made in Giovanni Boccaccio 's book on Dante several decades after his death, seem inspired by readers who were impressed with

1243-653: A phenomenon developed in French and Provençal poetry of prior centuries. Dante's experience of such love was typical, but his expression of it was unique. It was in the name of this love that Dante left his imprint on the dolce stil nuovo ("sweet new style", a term that Dante himself coined), and he would join other contemporary poets and writers in exploring never-before-emphasized aspects of love. Love for Beatrice (as Petrarch would express for Laura somewhat differently) would be his reason for writing poetry and for living, together with political passions. In many of his poems, she

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1356-663: A poem of epic structure and philosophic purpose, he established that the Italian language was suitable for the highest sort of expression. In French, Italian is sometimes nicknamed la langue de Dante . Publishing in the vernacular language marked Dante as one of the first in Roman Catholic Western Europe (among others such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio) to break free from standards of publishing in only Latin (the language of liturgy , history and scholarship in general, but often also of lyric poetry). This break set

1469-411: A poet should do: live a life of perpetual desire channeling his energies to higher ends, or physically consummate. Scholars have seen it both ways. Denis de Rougemont said that the troubadours were influenced by Cathar doctrines which rejected the pleasures of the flesh and that they were metaphorically addressing the spirit and soul of their ladies. Rougemont also said that courtly love subscribed to

1582-584: A precedent and allowed more literature to be published for a wider audience, setting the stage for greater levels of literacy in the future. However, unlike Boccaccio, Milton or Ariosto , Dante did not really become an author read across Europe until the Romantic era. To the Romantics, Dante, like Homer and Shakespeare , was a prime example of the "original genius" who set his own rules, created persons of overpowering stature and depth, and went beyond any imitation of

1695-462: A prudish and patriarchal theocracy views courtly love as a "humanist" reaction to the puritanical views of the Catholic Church. Scholars who endorse this view value courtly love for its exaltation of femininity as an ennobling, spiritual, and moral force, in contrast to the ironclad chauvinism of the first and second estates. The condemnation of courtly love in the beginning of the 13th century by

1808-424: A quiet scene with a household servant performing for the king or lord and a few other people, usually unaccompanied. According to scholar Christopher Page, whether or not a piece was accompanied depended on the availability of instruments and people to accompany—in a courtly setting. For troubadours or minstrels, pieces were often accompanied by fiddle, also called a vielle , or a harp . Courtly musicians also played

1921-467: A situation closely mirroring what would happen in southern France about a century later. Contacts between these Spanish poets and the French troubadours were frequent. The metrical forms used by the Spanish poets resembled those later used by the troubadours. The historic analysis of courtly love varies between different schools of historians. That sort of history which views the early Middle Ages dominated by

2034-532: A technical term after him. In 1896, Lewis Freeman Mott applied the term "courtly love" to Dante Alighieri 's love for Beatrice in La Vita Nuova (1294). The two relationships are very different — Lancelot and Guinevere are secret adulterous lovers, while Dante and Beatrice had no actual romantic relationship and only met twice in their whole lives. Nonetheless, the manner in which the two men describe their devotion to and quasi-religious adoration of their ladies

2147-554: A time when most poetry was written in Latin , which was accessible only to educated readers. His De vulgari eloquentia ( On Eloquence in the Vernacular ) was one of the first scholarly defenses of the vernacular. His use of the Florentine dialect for works such as The New Life (1295) and Divine Comedy helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language. By writing his poem in

2260-441: A tomb for him in 1483. On the grave, a verse of Bernardo Canaccio , a friend of Dante, is dedicated to Florence: parvi Florentia mater amoris Florence, mother of little love In 1329, Bertrand du Pouget , Cardinal and nephew of Pope John XXII , classified Dante's Monarchia as heretical and sought to have his bones burned at the stake. Ostasio I da Polenta and Pino della Tosa, allies of Pouget, interceded to prevent

2373-518: Is a collection of his longest poems with an (unfinished) allegorical commentary. Monarchia ("Monarchy") is a summary treatise of political philosophy in Latin which was condemned and burned after Dante's death by the Papal Legate Bertrando del Poggetto ; it argues for the necessity of a universal or global monarchy to establish universal peace in this life, and this monarchy's relationship to

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2486-543: Is a wide range of attitudes, even across the works of individual poets. Some poems are physically sensual, even bawdily imagining nude embraces, while others are highly spiritual and border on the platonic. A continued point of controversy is whether courtly love was purely literary or was actually practiced in real life. There are no historical records that offer evidence of its presence in reality. Historian John F. Benton found no documentary evidence in law codes, court cases, chronicles or other historical documents. However,

2599-496: Is also found in the Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun . In it, a man becomes enamored with an individual rose on a rosebush, attempting to pick it and finally succeeding. The rose represents the female body, but the romance also contains lengthy digressive "discussions on free will versus determinism as well as on optics and the influence of heavenly bodies on human behavior". Courtly love in troubadour poetry

2712-475: Is associated with the word midons . Midons comes from the Latin phrase "my lord", mihi dominus . The mi part is alternatively interpreted as coming from meus or mia , though the meaning is unchanged regardless. Troubadours beginning with Guilhem de Poitou would address the lady as midons , flattering her by addressing her as his lord and also serving as an ambiguous code-name. By refusing to disclose his lady's name,

2825-417: Is called mixed love which gets its effect from every delight of the flesh and culminates in the final act of Venus. On the other hand, continual references to beds and sleeping in the lover's arms in medieval sources such as the troubador albas and romances such as Chrétien 's Lancelot imply at least in some cases a context of actual sexual intercourse. Within the corpus of troubadour poems there

2938-560: Is depicted as semi-divine, watching over him constantly and providing spiritual instruction, sometimes harshly. When Beatrice died in 1290, Dante sought refuge in Latin literature. The Convivio chronicles his having read Boethius 's De consolatione philosophiae and Cicero's De Amicitia . He next dedicated himself to philosophical studies at religious schools like the Dominican one in Santa Maria Novella . He took part in

3051-624: Is described as the "father" of the Italian language, and in Italy he is often referred to as il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet"). Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called the tre corone ("three crowns") of Italian literature. Dante was born in Florence , Republic of Florence , in what is now Italy. The exact date of his birth is unknown, although it is believed to be around May 1265. This can be deduced from autobiographic allusions in

3164-505: Is likely he would have undertaken such a work only after he realized his political ambitions, which had been central to him up to his banishment, had been halted for some time, possibly forever. It is also noticeable that Beatrice has returned to his imagination with renewed force and with a wider meaning than in the Vita Nuova ; in Convivio (written c.  1304 –07) he had declared that

3277-582: Is not known; the only certain information is that, before his exile in 1301, he had fathered three children with Gemma (Pietro, Jacopo and Antonia). Dante fought with the Guelph cavalry at the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289). This victory brought about a reformation of the Florentine constitution. To take part in public life, one had to enroll in one of the city's many commercial or artisan guilds, so Dante entered

3390-417: Is provided in the music itself. One lay, the "Lay of Lecheor", says that after a lay was composed, "Then the lay was preserved / Until it was known everywhere / For those who were skilled musicians / On viol, harp and rote / Carried it forth from that region…" Scholars have to then decide whether to take this description as truth or fiction. Period examples of performance practice, of which there are few, show

3503-459: Is similar. In 1936, C. S. Lewis wrote The Allegory of Love which popularized the term "courtly love". He defined it as a "love of a highly specialized sort, whose characteristics may be enumerated as Humility, Courtesy, Adultery, and the Religion of Love". In 1964, Mosché Lazar differentiated three separate categories within "courtly love." Scholars debate whether "courtly love" constitutes

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3616-555: The Divine Comedy . Its first section, the Inferno , begins, " Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita " ("Midway upon the journey of our life"), implying that Dante was around 35 years old, since the average lifespan according to the Bible (Psalm 89:10, Vulgate) is 70 years; and since his imaginary travel to the netherworld took place in 1300, he was most probably born around 1265. Some verses of

3729-597: The Comedy soon became a cornerstone in the evolution of Italian as an established literary language. Dante was more aware than most early Italian writers of the variety of Italian dialects and of the need to create a literature and a unified literary language beyond the limits of Latin writing at the time; in that sense, he is a forerunner of the Renaissance , with its effort to create vernacular literature in competition with earlier classical writers. Dante's in-depth knowledge (within

3842-686: The Comedy , regarding painting and music. Dante, like most Florentines of his day, was embroiled in the Guelph–Ghibelline conflict . He fought in the Battle of Campaldino (June 11, 1289), with the Florentine Guelphs against Arezzo Ghibellines; he fought as a feditore  [ it ] , responsible for the first attack. To further his political career, he obtained admission to the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries around 1295. He likely joined

3955-450: The Count of Champagne 's court. Courtly love found expression in the lyric poems written by troubadours , such as William IX, Duke of Aquitaine (1071–1126), one of the first troubadour poets. Poets adopted the terminology of feudalism , declaring themselves the vassal of the lady. The troubadour's model of the ideal lady was the wife of his employer or lord, a lady of higher status, usually

4068-570: The Gherardini family , was condemned to exile for two years and ordered to pay a large fine. Dante was accused of corruption and financial wrongdoing by the Black Guelphs for the time that Dante was serving as city prior (Florence's highest position) for two months in 1300. The poet was still in Rome in 1302, as the Pope, who had backed the Black Guelphs, had "suggested" that Dante stay there. Florence under

4181-474: The Inferno had been published by 1317; this is established by quoted lines interspersed in the margins of contemporary dated records from Bologna , but there is no certainty as to whether the three parts of the poem were each published in full or, rather, a few cantos at a time. Paradiso was likely finished before he died, but it may have been published posthumously. In 1312, Henry assaulted Florence and defeated

4294-454: The Inferno , or that this part had been published at the time, but it indicates composition was well underway and that the sketching of the poem might have begun some years before. (It has been suggested that a knowledge of Dante's work also underlies some of the illuminations in Francesco da Barberino's earlier Officiolum [c. 1305–08], a manuscript that came to light in 2003. ) It is known that

4407-568: The Paradiso section of the Divine Comedy also provide a possible clue that he was born under the sign of Gemini : "As I revolved with the eternal twins, I saw revealed, from hills to river outlets, the threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious" (XXII  151–154). In 1265, the sun was in Gemini between approximately May 11 and June 11 ( Julian calendar ). Dante claimed that his family descended from

4520-506: The Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas , and later served in the papal curia . In 1315, Florence was forced by Uguccione della Faggiuola (the military officer controlling the town) to grant an amnesty to those in exile, including Dante. But for this, Florence required public penance in addition to payment of a high fine. Dante refused, preferring to remain in exile. When Uguccione defeated Florence, Dante's death sentence

4633-568: The University of Pisa and forensic engineers at the University of Bologna at Forlì constructed the model, portraying Dante's features as somewhat different from what was once thought. In 2008, the Municipality of Florence officially apologized for expelling Dante 700 years earlier. In May 2021, a symbolic re-trial was held virtually in Florence to posthumously clear his name. A celebration

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4746-481: The castle life of four regions: Aquitaine , Provence , Champagne and ducal Burgundy , from around the time of the First Crusade (1099). Eleanor of Aquitaine (1124–1204) brought ideals of courtly love from Aquitaine first to the court of France, then to England (she became queen-consort in each of these two realms in succession). Her daughter Marie, Countess of Champagne (1145–1198) brought courtly behavior to

4859-636: The papacy , and the Ghibellines , who supported the Holy Roman Empire . Dante's family was loyal to the Guelphs. The Ghibellines took over Florence at the Battle of Montaperti in 1260, forcing out many of the Guelphs. Although Dante's family were Guelphs, they suffered no reprisals after the battle, probably because of Alighiero's low public standing. The Guelphs later fought the Ghibellines again in 1266 at

4972-473: The "pure love" described in 1184 by Capellanus in De amore : It is the pure love which binds together the hearts of two lovers with every feeling of delight. This kind consists in the contemplation of the mind and the affection of the heart; it goes as far as the kiss and the embrace and the modest contact with the nude lover, omitting the final solace, for that is not permitted for those who wish to love purely.... That

5085-411: The Battle of Benevento, retaking Florence from the Ghibellines. Dante said he first met Beatrice Portinari , daughter of Folco Portinari , when he was nine (she was eight), and he claimed to have fallen in love with her " at first sight ", apparently without even talking with her. When he was 12, however, he was promised in marriage to Gemma di Manetto Donati , daughter of Manetto Donati, member of

5198-580: The Black Guelphs ( Guelfi Neri ), led by Corso Donati . Although the split was along family lines at first, ideological differences arose based on opposing views of the papal role in Florentine affairs. The Blacks supported the Pope and the Whites wanted more freedom from Rome. The Whites took power first and expelled the Blacks. In response, Pope Boniface VIII planned a military occupation of Florence. In 1301, Charles of Valois , brother of King Philip IV of France ,

5311-544: The Black Guelphs, but there is no evidence that Dante was involved. Some say he refused to participate in the attack on his city by a foreigner; others suggest that he had become unpopular with the White Guelphs, too, and that any trace of his passage had carefully been removed. Henry VII died (from a fever) in 1313 and with him any hope for Dante to see Florence again. He returned to Verona, where Cangrande I della Scala allowed him to live in certain security and, presumably, in

5424-410: The Black Guelphs, therefore, considered Dante an absconder. Dante did not pay the fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty and in part because all his assets in Florence had been seized by the Black Guelphs. He was condemned to perpetual exile; if he had returned to Florence without paying the fine, he could have been burned at the stake. (In June 2008, nearly seven centuries after his death,

5537-481: The Courts of Love and the later works of Petrarchism (as well as the continuing influence of Ovid), the themes of courtly love were not confined to the medieval, but appear both in serious and comic forms in early modern Europe. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet , for example, shows Romeo attempting to love Rosaline in an almost contrived courtly fashion while Mercutio mocks him for it; and both in his plays and his sonnets

5650-644: The Dove ) by Ibn Hazm is a treatise on love which emphasizes restraint and chastity. Tarjumān al-Ashwāq ( The Translator of Desires ) by Ibn Arabi is a collection of love poetry. Outside of Al-Andalus, Kitab al-Zahra ( Book of the Flower ) by Ibn Dawud and Risala fi'l-Ishq ( Treatise of Love ) by Ibn Sina are roughly contemporary treaties on love. Ibn Arabi and Ibn Sina both weave together themes of sensual love with divine love. According to Gustave E. von Grunebaum , notions of "love for love's sake" and "exaltation of

5763-451: The French troubadours and trouvères , as well as the writers of lays. Texts about courtly love, including lays, were often set to music by troubadours or minstrels. According to scholar Ardis Butterfield, courtly love is "the air which many genres of troubadour song breathe". Not much is known about how, when, where, and for whom these pieces were performed, but we can infer that the pieces were performed at court by troubadours, trouvères, or

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5876-418: The Italian vernacular rather than in Latin, Dante influenced the course of literary development, making Italian the literary language in western Europe for several centuries. His work set a precedent that important Italian writers such as Petrarch and Boccaccio would later follow. Dante was instrumental in establishing the literature of Italy, and is considered to be among the country's national poets and

5989-529: The Latin motu proprio titled Altissimi cantus , which was dedicated to Dante's figure and poetry. In that year, the pope also donated a golden iron Greek Cross to Dante's burial site in Ravenna, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his birth. The same cross was blessed by Pope Francis in October 2020. In 2007, a reconstruction of Dante's face was undertaken in a collaborative project. Artists from

6102-544: The Pheasant in 1454, relied on parables drawn from courtly love to incite his nobles to swear to participate in an anticipated crusade, while well into the 15th century numerous actual political and social conventions were largely based on the formulas dictated by the "rules" of courtly love. A point of controversy was the existence of "courts of love", first mentioned by Andreas Capellanus . These were supposed courts made up of tribunals staffed by 10 to 70 women who would hear

6215-506: The Physicians' and Apothecaries' Guild. His name is occasionally recorded as speaking or voting in the councils of the republic. Many minutes from such meetings between 1298 and 1300 were lost, so the extent of his participation is uncertain. Not much is known about Dante's education; he presumably studied at home or in a chapter school attached to a church or monastery in Florence. It is known that he studied Tuscan poetry and that he admired

6328-694: The Roman Catholic Church as guide to eternal peace. De vulgari eloquentia ("On the Eloquence in the Vernacular") is a treatise on vernacular literature, partly inspired by the Razos de trobar of Raimon Vidal de Bezaudun . Quaestio de aqua et terra ("A Question of the Water and of the Land") is a theological work discussing the arrangement of Earth's dry land and ocean. The Eclogues are two poems addressed to

6441-580: The Trinity make only rare appearances. For instance, God the Father is referred to only in the context of providing Jesus with a kingdom. Similarly, the Virgin Mary is invoked as a pure, unstained advocate for the female speaker's cause, but not fleshed out as an individual figure. Courtly love Courtly love ( Occitan : fin'amor [finaˈmuɾ] ; French : amour courtois [amuʁ kuʁtwa] )

6554-460: The Western world's greatest literary icons. His depictions of Hell , Purgatory , and Heaven provided inspiration for the larger body of Western art and literature . He influenced English writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer , John Milton , and Alfred Tennyson , among many others. In addition, the first use of the interlocking three-line rhyme scheme, or the terza rima , is attributed to him. He

6667-449: The ancient Romans ( Inferno , XV, 76), but the earliest relative he could mention by name was his great-great-grandfather Cacciaguida degli Elisei ( Paradiso , XV, 135), born no earlier than about 1100. Dante's father was Alighiero di Bellincione , a businessman and moneylender, and Dante's mother was Bella, probably a member of the Abati family, a noble Florentine family. She died when Dante

6780-469: The basis of modern research, an earlier account of Dante's life and works had been included in the Nuova Cronica of the Florentine chronicler Giovanni Villani . Some 16th-century English Protestants, such as John Bale and John Foxe , argued that Dante was a proto-Protestant because of his opposition to the pope. The 19th century saw a "Dante revival", a product of the medieval revival , which

6893-606: The beloved lady" can be traced back to Arabic literature of the 9th and 10th centuries. The ennobling power of love is overtly discussed in Risala fi'l-Ishq . According to an argument outlined by María Rosa Menocal in The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History (1987), in 11th-century Spain, a group of wandering poets appeared who would go from court to court, and sometimes travel to Christian courts in southern France,

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7006-411: The books, Purgatorio is arguably the most lyrical of the three, referring to more contemporary poets and artists than Inferno ; Paradiso is the most heavily theological, and the one in which, many scholars have argued, the Divine Comedy 's most beautiful and mystic passages appear. With its seriousness of purpose, its literary stature and the range—both stylistic and thematic—of its content,

7119-469: The church and to the individual Christian soul". Marie de France's lai " Eliduc " toys with the idea that human romantic love is a symbol for God's love when two people love each other so fully and completely that they leave each other for God, separating and moving to different religious environments. Furthermore, the main character's first wife leaves her husband and becomes a nun so that he can marry his new lover. Allegorical treatment of courtly love

7232-494: The church as heretical, is seen by these scholars as the Church's attempt to put down this "sexual rebellion". However, other scholars note that courtly love was certainly tied to the Church's effort to civilize the crude Germanic feudal codes in the late 11th century. It has also been suggested that the prevalence of arranged marriages required other outlets for the expression of more personal occurrences of romantic love, and thus it

7345-446: The city council of Florence passed a motion rescinding Dante's sentence.) In 1306–07, Dante was a guest of Moroello Malaspina  [ it ] in the region of Lunigiana . Dante took part in several attempts by the White Guelphs to regain power, but these failed due to treachery. Bitter at the treatment he received from his enemies, he grew disgusted with the infighting and ineffectiveness of his former allies and vowed to become

7458-540: The city in 1318 by its prince, Guido II da Polenta . Dante died in Ravenna on September 14, 1321, aged about 56, of quartan malaria contracted while returning from a diplomatic mission to the Republic of Venice . He was attended by his three children, and possibly by Gemma Donati , and by friends and admirers he had in the city. He was buried in Ravenna at the Church of San Pier Maggiore (later called Basilica di San Francesco ). Bernardo Bembo , praetor of Venice , erected

7571-406: The code of chivalry , and therefore a knight's loyalty was always to his King before his mistress. Edmund Reiss claimed it was also a spiritual love, but a love that had more in common with Christian love, or caritas . On the other hand, scholars such as Mosché Lazar claim it was adulterous sexual love with physical possession of the lady the desired end. Many scholars identify courtly love as

7684-735: The compositions of the Bolognese poet Guido Guinizelli —in Purgatorio XXVI he characterized him as his "father"—at a time when the Sicilian School ( Scuola poetica Siciliana ), a cultural group from Sicily , was becoming known in Tuscany. He also discovered the Provençal poetry of the troubadours , such as Arnaut Daniel , and the Latin writers of classical antiquity , including Cicero , Ovid and especially Virgil . Dante's interactions with Beatrice set an example of so-called courtly love ,

7797-419: The courtiers themselves. This can be inferred because people at court were encouraged or expected to be "courtly" and be proficient in many different areas, including music. Several troubadours became extremely wealthy playing the fiddle and singing their songs about courtly love for a courtly audience. It is difficult to know how and when these songs were performed because most of the information on these topics

7910-450: The cycle of poems celebrating King Arthur 's court. This was a literature of leisure, directed to a largely female audience for the first time in European history. Allegory is common in the romantic literature of the Middle Ages, and it was often used to interpret what was already written. There is a strong connection between religious imagery and human sexual love in medieval writings. The tradition of medieval allegory began in part with

8023-548: The destruction of Dante's remains. Florence eventually came to regret having exiled Dante. The city made repeated requests for the return of his remains. The custodians of the body in Ravenna refused, at one point going so far as to conceal the bones in a false wall of the monastery. Florence built a tomb for Dante in 1829, in the Basilica of Santa Croce . That tomb has been empty ever since, with Dante's body remaining in Ravenna. The front of his tomb in Florence reads Onorate l'altissimo poeta — which roughly translates as "Honor

8136-414: The disputes that the two principal mendicant orders ( Franciscan and Dominican ) publicly or indirectly held in Florence, the former explaining the doctrines of the mystics and of St. Bonaventure , the latter expounding on the theories of St. Thomas Aquinas . At around the age of 18, Dante met Guido Cavalcanti , Lapo Gianni , Cino da Pistoia and, soon after, Brunetto Latini ; together they became

8249-503: The era. Italy's first dreadnought battleship was completed in 1913 and named Dante Alighieri in honor of him. On April 30, 1921, in honor of the 600th anniversary of Dante's death, Pope Benedict XV promulgated an encyclical named In praeclara summorum , naming Dante as one "of the many celebrated geniuses of whom the Catholic faith can boast" and the "pride and glory of humanity". On December 7, 1965, Pope Paul VI promulgated

8362-546: The existence of the non-fiction genre of courtesy books is perhaps evidence for its practice. For example, according to Christine de Pizan 's courtesy book Book of the Three Virtues (c. 1405), which expresses disapproval of courtly love, the convention was being used to justify and cover up illicit love affairs. Courtly love probably found expression in the real world in customs such as the crowning of Queens of Love and Beauty at tournaments . Philip le Bon , in his Feast of

8475-699: The first two books telling him how to achieve love and setting forth the rules of love. However, in the third book he tells Walter that the only way to live his life correctly is to shun love in favor of God. This sudden change is what has sparked the interest of many scholars, leading some to regard the first two books as satirizing courtly love and only the third book as expressing Capellanus' actual beliefs. (Adapted from Barbara W. Tuchman ) Dante Alighieri Dante Alighieri ( Italian: [ˈdante aliˈɡjɛːri] ; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri ; c.  May 1265 – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante ,

8588-451: The guild due to association between philosophy and medicine, but also may have joined as apothecaries were also booksellers. His guild membership allowed him to hold public office in Florence. As a politician, he held various offices over some years in a city rife with political unrest. After defeating the Ghibellines, the Guelphs divided into two factions: the White Guelphs ( Guelfi Bianchi )—Dante's party, led by Vieri dei Cerchi—and

8701-566: The interpretation of the Song of Songs in the Bible. Some medieval writers thought that the book should be taken literally as an erotic text; others believed that the Song of Songs was a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and the church and that the book could not even exist without that as its metaphorical meaning. Still others claimed that the book was written literally about sex but that this meaning must be "superseded by meanings related to Christ, to

8814-526: The late 12th century Andreas Capellanus ' highly influential work De amore had codified the rules of courtly love. De amore lists such rules as: Much of its structure and its sentiments derived from Ovid 's Ars amatoria . One theory holds that courtly love in Southern France was influenced by Arabic poetry in Al-Andalus . In contemporary Andalusian writing, Ṭawq al-Ḥamāmah ( The Ring of

8927-496: The leaders of the dolce stil nuovo . Brunetto later received special mention in the Divine Comedy ( Inferno , XV, 28) for what he had taught Dante: "Nor speaking less on that account I go With Ser Brunetto, and I ask who are his most known and most eminent companions". Some fifty poetical commentaries by Dante are known (the so-called Rime , rhymes), others being included in the later Vita Nuova and Convivio . Other studies are reported, or deduced from Vita Nuova or

9040-484: The limits of his time) of Roman antiquity, and his evident admiration for some aspects of pagan Rome, also point forward to the 15th century. He wrote the Comedy in a language he called "Italian", in some sense an amalgamated literary language predominantly based on the regional dialect of Tuscany, but with some elements of Latin and other regional dialects. He deliberately aimed to reach a readership throughout Italy including laymen, clergymen and other poets. By creating

9153-545: The lover's first duties" in the ideology of courtly love, it is "manifestly absurd to suppose that a sentiment which depended on concealment for its existence should be amenable to public inquiry". According to Diane Bornstein, one way to reconcile the differences between the references to courts of love in the literature, and the lack of documentary evidence in real life, is that they were like literary salons or social gatherings, where people read poems, debated questions of love, and played word games of flirtation. Theologians of

9266-503: The major authors of the Middle Ages, such as Geoffrey Chaucer , John Gower , Dante , Marie de France , Chretien de Troyes , Gottfried von Strassburg and Thomas Malory . The medieval genres in which courtly love conventions can be found include the lyric , the romance and the allegory . Courtly love was born in the lyric, first appearing with Provençal poets in the 11th century, including itinerant and courtly minstrels such as

9379-442: The male troubadours to use the images of women as a means to gain social status with other men, but simultaneously, Bogin suggests, voiced deeper longings for the audience: "In this way, the sexual expressed the social and the social the sexual; and in the poetry of courtly love the static hierarchy of feudalism was uprooted and transformed to express a world of motion and transformation." Through such routes as Capellanus's record of

9492-400: The maxims of courtly love and finally wins her after fighting a duel with her aristocratic betrothed. A point of ongoing controversy about courtly love is to what extent it was sexual. All courtly love was erotic to some degree, and not purely platonic—the troubadours speak of the physical beauty of their ladies and the feelings and desires the ladies arouse in them. However, it is unclear what

9605-541: The memory of this youthful romance belonged to the past. An early indication that the poem was underway is a notice by Francesco da Barberino , tucked into his Documenti d'Amore ( Lessons of Love ), probably written in 1314 or early 1315. Francesco notes that Dante followed the Aeneid in a poem called "Comedy" and that the setting of this poem (or part of it) was the underworld; i.e., hell. The brief note gives no incontestable indication that Barberino had seen or read even

9718-558: The most exalted poet" and is a quote from the fourth canto of the Inferno . In 1945, the fascist government discussed bringing Dante's remains to the Valtellina Redoubt , the Alpine valley in which the regime intended to make its last stand against the Allies . The case was made that "the greatest symbol of Italianness" should be present at fascism's "heroic" end, but ultimately, no action

9831-431: The other delegates and asked Dante alone to remain in Rome. At the same time (November 1, 1301), Charles of Valois entered Florence with the Black Guelphs, who in the next six days destroyed much of the city and killed many of their enemies. A new Black Guelph government was installed, and Cante dei Gabrielli da Gubbio was appointed podestà of the city. In March 1302, Dante, a White Guelph by affiliation, along with

9944-502: The patterns of earlier masters; and who, in turn, could not truly be imitated. Throughout the 19th century, Dante's reputation grew and solidified; and by 1865, the 600th anniversary of his birth, he had become established as one of the greatest literary icons of the Western world. New readers often wonder how such a serious work may be called a "comedy". In the classical sense the word comedy refers to works that reflect belief in an ordered universe, in which events tend toward not only

10057-472: The perfect lover-knight with more earthy eroticism. Similarly, the texts combine nuptial metaphors with crucifixion imagery, blending divine marriage with shared divine pain. Jesus is at once the desired spouse and the suffering savior. In particular, the title piece outlines all the qualities that Christ has that make him the perfect spouse, and these are all defined in human terms. Christ is handsome, kind, noble, wealthy, generous, and loving. The other members of

10170-437: The poet Giovanni del Virgilio. Dante is also sometimes credited with writing Il Fiore ("The Flower"), a series of sonnets summarizing Le Roman de la Rose , and Detto d'Amore ("Tale of Love"), a short narrative poem also based on Le Roman de la Rose . These would be the earliest, and most novice, of his known works. Le Rime is a posthumous collection of miscellaneous poems. The major works of Dante's are

10283-433: The poet's wide learning and erudition. Evidently, Dante's command of philosophy and his literary interests deepened in exile and when he was no longer busy with the day-to-day business of Florentine domestic politics, and this is evidenced in his prose writings in this period. There is no real evidence that he ever left Italy. Dante's Immensa Dei dilectione testante to Henry VII of Luxembourg confirms his residence "beneath

10396-623: The powerful Donati family. Contracting marriages for children at such an early age was quite common and involved a formal ceremony, including contracts signed before a notary . Dante claimed to have seen Beatrice again frequently after he turned 18, exchanging greetings with her in the streets of Florence, though he never knew her well. Years after his marriage to Gemma, he claims to have met Beatrice again; he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice but never mentioned Gemma in any of his poems. He refers to other Donati relations, notably Forese and Piccarda, in his Divine Comedy . The exact date of his marriage

10509-557: The rich and powerful female head of the castle. When her husband was away on Crusade or elsewhere she dominated the household and cultural affairs; sometimes this was the case even when the husband was at home. The poet gave voice to the aspirations of the courtier class, for only those who were noble could engage in courtly love. This new kind of love saw nobility not based on wealth and family history, but on character and actions; such as devotion , piety , gallantry , thus appealing to poorer knights who saw an avenue for advancement. By

10622-586: The springs of Arno, near Tuscany" in April 1311. In 1310, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg marched into Italy at the head of 5,000 troops. Dante saw in him a new Charlemagne who would restore the office of the Holy Roman Emperor to its former glory and also retake Florence from the Black Guelphs. He wrote to Henry and several Italian princes, demanding that they destroy the Black Guelphs. Mixing religion and private concerns in his writings, he invoked

10735-435: The texts that scholars claim to be courtly also include "uncourtly" texts, and argues that there is no clear way to determine "where courtliness ends and uncourtliness starts" because readers would enjoy texts which were supposed to be entirely courtly without realizing they were also enjoying texts which were uncourtly. This presents a clear problem in the understanding of courtliness. The practice of courtly love developed in

10848-452: The thirteenth century. However, Dante's commentary on his own work is also in the vernacular—both in the Vita Nuova and in the Convivio —instead of the Latin that was almost universally used. The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell ( Inferno ), Purgatory ( Purgatorio ), and Paradise ( Paradiso ); he is first guided by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice. Of

10961-405: The time emphasized love as more of a spiritual rather than sexual connection. There is a possibility that writings about courtly love were made as a response to the theological ideas about love. Many scholars believe that Andreas Capellanus' work De amore was a satire poking fun at doctors and theologians. In that work, Capellanus is supposedly writing to a young man named Walter, and he spends

11074-406: The troubadour permitted every woman in the audience, notably the patron's wife, to think that it was she; then, besides making her the object of a secret passion—it was always covert romance—by making her his lord he flashed her an aggrandized image of herself. She was more than "just" a woman: She was a man. These points of multiple meaning and ambiguity facilitated a "coquetry of class", allowing

11187-522: The vielle and the harp, as well as different types of viols and flutes . This French tradition spread later to the German Minnesänger , such as Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach . It also influenced the Sicilian School of Italian vernacular poetry, as well as Petrarch and Dante . The vernacular poetry of the romans courtois , or courtly romances , included many examples of courtly love. Some of them are set within

11300-415: The worst anger of God against his city and suggested several particular targets, who were also his personal enemies. It was during this time that he wrote De Monarchia , proposing a universal monarchy under Henry VII. At some point during his exile, he conceived of the Comedy , but the date is uncertain. The work is much more assured and on a larger scale than anything he had written in Florence; it

11413-600: The writer can be seen appropriating the conventions of courtly love for his own ends. Paul Gallico 's 1939 novel The Adventures of Hiram Holliday depicts a Romantic modern American consciously seeking to model himself on the ideal medieval knight. Among other things, when finding himself in Austria in the aftermath of the Anschluss , he saves a Habsburg princess who is threatened by the Nazis, acts towards her in strict accordance with

11526-444: Was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry . Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing various deeds or services for ladies because of their "courtly love". This kind of love was originally a literary fiction created for the entertainment of the nobility, but as time passed, these ideas about love spread to popular culture and attracted

11639-455: Was an Italian poet , writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy , originally called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia ) and later christened Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio , is widely considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. Dante is known for establishing the use of the vernacular in literature at

11752-529: Was an experience between erotic desire and spiritual attainment, "a love at once illicit and morally elevating, passionate and disciplined , humiliating and exalting, human and transcendent ". The topic was prominent with both musicians and poets, being frequently used by troubadours , trouvères and Minnesänger . The topic was also popular with major writers, including Dante , Petrarch and Geoffrey Chaucer . The term "courtly love" appears in only one extant source: Provençal cortez amors in

11865-468: Was commuted to house arrest, on condition that he go to Florence to swear he would never enter the town again. He refused to go, and his death sentence was confirmed and extended to his sons. Despite this, he still hoped late in life that he might be invited back to Florence on honorable terms, particularly in praise of his poetry. Dante's final days were spent in Ravenna , where he had been invited to stay in

11978-459: Was customary for such poems. It also contains, or constructs, the story of his love for Beatrice Portinari, who later served as the ultimate symbol of salvation in the Comedy , a function already indicated in the final pages of the Vita Nuova . The work contains many of Dante's love poems in Tuscan, which was not unprecedented; the vernacular had been regularly used for lyric works before, during all

12091-441: Was expected to visit Florence because the Pope had appointed him as peacemaker for Tuscany. But the city's government had treated the Pope's ambassadors badly a few weeks before, seeking independence from papal influence. It was believed Charles had received other unofficial instructions, so the council sent a delegation that included Dante to Rome to persuade the Pope not to send Charles to Florence. Pope Boniface quickly dismissed

12204-579: Was held in 2015 at Italy's Senate of the Republic for the 750th anniversary of Dante's birth. It included a commemoration from Pope Francis, who also issued the apostolic letter Cando lucis aeternae in honor of the anniversary. Most of Dante's literary work was composed after his exile in 1301. La Vita Nuova ("The New Life") is the only major work that predates it; it is a collection of lyric poems (sonnets and songs) with commentary in prose, ostensibly intended to be circulated in manuscript form, as

12317-673: Was itself an important aspect of Romanticism . Thomas Carlyle profiled him in "The Hero as Poet", the third lecture in On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History (1841): "He is world-great not because he is worldwide, but because he is world-deep… Dante is the spokesman of the Middle Ages; the Thought they lived by stands here, in everlasting music." Leigh Hunt , Henry Francis Cary and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were among Dante's translators of

12430-505: Was not in reaction to the prudery or patriarchy of the Church but to the nuptial customs of the era that courtly love arose. In the Germanic cultural world, a special form of courtly love can be found, namely Minne . At times, the lady could be a princesse lointaine , a far-away princess, and some tales told of men who had fallen in love with women whom they had never seen, merely on hearing their perfection described, but normally she

12543-485: Was not so distant. As the etiquette of courtly love became more complicated, the knight might wear the colors of his lady: where blue or black were sometimes the colors of faithfulness, green could be a sign of unfaithfulness. Salvation, previously found in the hands of the priesthood, now came from the hands of one's lady. In some cases, there were also women troubadours who expressed the same sentiment for men. The literary convention of courtly love can be found in most of

12656-471: Was not yet ten years old. Alighiero soon married again, to Lapa di Chiarissimo Cialuffi. It is uncertain whether he really married her, since widowers were socially limited in such matters, but she definitely bore him two children, Dante's half-brother Francesco and half-sister Tana (Gaetana). During Dante's time, most Northern Italian city states were split into two political factions: the Guelphs , who supported

12769-575: Was taken. A copy of Dante's so-called death mask has been displayed since 1911 in the Palazzo Vecchio ; scholars today believe it is not a true death mask and was probably carved in 1483, perhaps by Pietro and Tullio Lombardo . The first formal biography of Dante was the Vita di Dante (also known as Trattatello in laude di Dante ), written after 1348 by Giovanni Boccaccio. Although several statements and episodes of it have been deemed unreliable on

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