Le mal d'amour au Moyen Âge

The medieval concept of love as an affliction is linked to ancient theory of medicine and represents one of the essential components of courtly poetry. But if, on the one hand, this theory has created in 12 th and 13 th century authors the idea of love-imposed suffering which could lead to the lover’s death, other authors, having adhered to the doctrine of courtly love, surpassed the model and proposed giving the pain of love a new function : that of allowing the poet to rise up towards the contemplation of God. The description of the birth and physiology of love sickness in the Roman de la Rose and in its adaptation as Italian Sonnets by Dante Alighieri, Il Fiore, lends illustration to the tradition of this idea in the courtly literature of the 13 th century, while the evolution of Dante’s loving poetics will show the surpassing of amor concupiscentiae and the transition of this poet to his Vie Nouvelle

Art · Humanities · Historical and Literary Analyses · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · Philosophy · Renaissance Literature and Culture