#andreas capellanus

[gawrkin]

A short timeline of events:

William IX of Aquitaine (died February 10, 1126) is considered to be one of the earliest known troubadours by historians. Troubadour culture and Courtly Literature flourishes in Southern France.

Marie de Champagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine, commissions the romance Knight of the Cart/Lancelot by Chretien de Troyes, between 1175 to 1189. It is the earliest known depiction of the adulterous affair of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere

Marie de Champagne is also purported to have commissioned Andreas Capellanus to pen the treatise De Amore, between 1185 to 1190.

The Synod of Verona is held on November 1184. Marriage is declared a sacrament in response to Catharic influence.

Marie de Champagne dies on March 11, 1198. Her mother, Eleanor, dies six years later on April 1, 1204

The Albigensian Crusade erupts in Southern France. from 1209 to 1229. Catharism is eradicated. Casualties range from two hundred thousand to over a million dead. Troubadour culture declines in the region.

The Lancelot-Grail Cycle or the Vulgate Cycle is composed between 1210 to 1235. The first three sections of the literary cycle are believed to be as follows: the Lancelot (c. 1210 to 1220), Queste del Saint Graal (c. 1220 to 1225) and Mort Artu (c. 1225 to 1230). The earliest iterations of Tristan en Prose/Prose Tristan are also believed to be composed around this period.

The Post-Vulgate Cycle, a combined revision of the Lancelot-Grail and the Prose Tristan with stronger pessimistic themes against secular and courtly chivalry, is composed from 1230 to 1240.

[thefearofcod]

Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.

He who is not jealous, cannot love.

No one can be bound by a double love.

It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.

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

Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity.

When one lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.

No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.

No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.

Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.

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

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

When made public love rarely endures.

The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.

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

When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved, his heart palpitates.

A new love puts to flight an old one.

Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.

If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.

A man in love is always apprehensive.

Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.

Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.

He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little.

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

A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.

Love can deny nothing to love.

A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.

A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.

A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.

A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.

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

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

The Rules of Courtly Love

as relayed by the King of Love, in a long allegory within a dialogue between a nobleman and a noblewoman where he is mansplaining why she should sleep with him, thank you Andreas Capellanus:

Rule I: "Thou shalt avoid avarice like the deadly pestilence and shalt embrace it's opposite": A strong start. No objections here.

Rule II: "Thou shalt keep thyself chaste for the sake of her whom thou lovest". Look if it weren't self-denying and a little perhaps contradictory it wouldn't be courtly love

Rule III: "Thou shalt not knowingly strive to break up a correct love affair that someone else is engaged in." My affair with your wife is none of your damn business

Rule IV: "Thou shalt not choose for thy love anyone whom a natural sense of shame forbids thee to marry." A real can of worms wrigging around in this one, we'll just fly on by to:

Rule V: "Be mindful completely to avoid falsehood." Good fucking luck with that

Rule VI: "Thou shalt not have many who know of thy love affair." BE COOL

Rule VII: "Being obedient in all things to the commands of ladies, thou shalt ever strive to ally thyself to the service of Love." Do what she tells you, man

Rule VIII: "In giving and receiving love's solaces let modesty ever be present." Lights off, I guess?? Hands behind your back and eyes closed?? Good luck and godspeed

Rule IX: "Thou shalt speak no evil." Snitches get stitches

Rule X: "Thou shalt not be a revealer of love affairs." I SAID, SNITCHES get STITCHES

Rule XI: "Thou shalt be in all things polite and courteous." Sure. Fine. Good advice for us all, I suppose

Rule XII: "In practicing the solaces of love thou shalt not exceed the desires of thy lover." No, I meant it up there, seriously, do what she tells you, man

Anyway what more romantic advice could anyone possibly need? I think this covers all the bases, good luck following your heart and other associated organs in Troyes c. 1170

[gawrkin]

From the woman who created Lancelot:

(From Epistolae. Found HERE)

"We declare and we hold as firmly established that love cannot exert its powers between two people who are married to each other" - Marie de Champagne

[thefearofcod]

It will be considered greatly to your credit if by your good sense you make a trained soldier of Love’s army out of me, who am now awkward and untaught. It is fitting that an awkward, untaught man should serve a lover by whose industry he may hide his heedless youth.

-Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love

[earthdaughtr]

Assorted “rules of love” from “De Amore” or “The Art of Courtly Love” written 1186-1190 by Andreas Capellanus

[talesfromtheenchantedforest]

still just blown away by the patronage career of Marie de Troyes (Countess of Champagne), who, in addition to sponsoring Chrétien de Troyes's writing of Lancelot, commissioned Andreus Capellanus to write a treatise on courtly love, in which she is a self(ish)-insert semi-fictionalized character giving direct advice on how to conduct love affairs, including "no it is not physically possible for married people to love each other," see this fictional letter that two fictional debators solicit from her:

The letter sent back by the Countess of Champagne "To the prudent and noble woman A. and the illustrious and famous Count G., M., Countess of Champagne, sends greeting. "Since we are bound to hear the just petitions of everybody, and since it is not seemly to deny our help to those who ask what is proper, especially when those who go wrong on questions of love ask to be set right by our decision — which is what the tenor of your letter indicates — we have tried diligently and carefully to carry this out without any extended delay. "Now you letter has shown that this is the doubt that has arisen between you: whether love can have any place between husband and wife and whether between lovers jealousy is blameworthy; in both questions each of you falls back on his own opinion which side properly should get the decision. We have therefore examined carefully the statements of both sides and we wish to end the case with this decision. We declare and we hold as firmly established that love cannot exert its powers between two people who are married to each other. For lovers give each other everything freely, under no compulsion of necessity, but married people are duty bound to give in to each other's desires and deny themselves to each other in nothing. Besides, how does it increase a husband's honor if after the manner of lovers he enjoys the embraces of his wife, since the worth of character of neither can be increased thereby, and they seem to have nothing more than they already had a right to do? And we say the same thing for still another reason, which is that a precept of love tells us that no woman, even if she is married, can be crowned with the reward of the King of Love unless she is seen to be enlisted in the service of Love himself outside the bonds of wedlock. But another rule of Love teaches that no one can be in love with two men. Rightly, therefore, Love cannot acknowledge any rights of his between husband and wife. But there is still another argument that seems to stand in the way of this, which is that between them there can be no true jealousy, and without it love may not exist, according to the rule of Love himself, which says, 'He who is not jealous cannot love.' "Therefore let this be our verdict, pronounced with great moderation and supported by the opinion of a great many ladies, be to you firm and indubitable truth. "The first day of May, in the year 1174, the seventh of the indiction."

— The Art of Courtly Love, by Andreas Capellanus, trans. John Jay Parry

[lizbennett2013]

“And besides, if you think you are not beautiful, you should believe that I must really be in love, since to me your beauty excels that of all other women; and love makes even an ugly woman seem very beautiful to her lover.”

Andreas Capellanus, The Art of Courtly Love