The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli is the great medieval (ca. 1200) epic of Georgia, and its most distinctive feature is courtly or romantic love, which is its basic motivating force. This article seeks to establish in which respects The Knight in the Panther Skin resembles Western courtly love, and what the explanation for this resemblance might be. In this endeavor I have had to challenge a common (mis-) conception that Western courtly love was essentially illicit loveOne can easily demonstrate that the literary roots of The Knight in the Panther Skin lie in Persian literature rather than in direct contact with Western courtly love, but the reason for the resemblance to Western courtly love is more problematic. Various possibilities are entertained: namely, (1) that Arab love poetry gave rise to it in Georgia (and possibly also in the West, as has been held); (2) that Neoplatonism produced or constituted a philosophic underpinning for courtly love and that it was transmitted to Georgia and/or Western Europe (a) by Arab Neoplatonists; (b) by Western Christian Neoplatonists or (c) by Byzantine Neoplatonists. A third possibility is (3) that it arose due to social and political conditions. And what were the social and political circumstances in Georgia and in Western Europe which, at the same historical period, produced and elaborated a culture so deferential to the ladies? And which, being absent in the Islamic world, did not produce courtly love there? In Georg

The Knight in the Panther Skin by Shota Rustaveli is the great medieval (ca. 1200) epic of Georgia, and its most distinctive feature is courtly or romantic love, which is its basic motivating force. This article seeks to establish in which respects The Knight in the Panther Skin resembles Western courtly love, and what the explanation for this resemblance might be. In this endeavor I have had to challenge a common (mis-) conception that Western courtly love was essentially illicit loveOne can easily demonstrate that the literary roots of The Knight in the Panther Skin lie in Persian literature rather than in direct contact with Western courtly love, but the reason for the resemblance to Western courtly love is more problematic. Various possibilities are entertained: namely, (1) that Arab love poetry gave rise to it in Georgia (and possibly also in the West, as has been held); (2) that Neoplatonism produced or constituted a philosophic underpinning for courtly love and that it was transmitted to Georgia and/or Western Europe (a) by Arab Neoplatonists; (b) by Western Christian Neoplatonists or (c) by Byzantine Neoplatonists. A third possibility is (3) that it arose due to social and political conditions. And what were the social and political circumstances in Georgia and in Western Europe which, at the same historical period, produced and elaborated a culture so deferential to the ladies? And which, being absent in the Islamic world, did not produce courtly love there? In Georg

This encyclopedic entry explores the vast field of courtly love poetry, romance, and other related genres, tracing the development of this topic across medieval Europe and discussing some of the major contributors. The focus rests on the element of discourse because so many different poets have made their voices heard and debated from many different perspectives the meaning, impact, and consequence of courtly love on the individual in ethical, social, moral, religious, economic, and even political terms. Courtly love is to be understood as a literary discourse on the mostly esoteric pursuit of love as a way of life for members of the high medieval aristocracy, finding vivid expression in poetry, short verse narratives, and romances.

The article analyses literary conceptions of «courtly love» in the Middle High German and Galician-Portuguese traditions, in particular by concentrating on the lyric genre of the alba. After comparing compositions by Wolfram von Eschenbach and D. Dinis, the author concludes that the two poets developed different strategies in order to attempt to solve problems inherent to one of the most important aesthetic-literary codes in medieval Europe.

III. The Transition Period (1350–1600) (a) The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries.—As is the case with all transitional periods of literary history, this epoch of German literature may be considered under two aspects: on the one hand, we may follow in it the decadence and disintegration of the literature of the Middle High German period; on the other, we may study the beginnings of modern forms of poetry and the preparation of that spiritual revolution, which meant hardly less to the Germanic peoples than the Renaissance to the Latin races—the Protestant Reformation. By the middle of the 14th century, knighthood with its chivalric ideals was rapidly declining, and the conditions under which medieval poetry had flourished were passing away. The social change rendered the courtly epic of Arthur’s Round Table in great measure incomprehensible to the younger generation, and made it difficult for them to understand the spirit that actuated the heroes of the national epic; the tastes to which the lyrics of the great Minnesingers had appealed were vitiated by the more practical demands of the rising middle classes.

Courtly love (Occitan: fin'amor [finaˈmuɾ]; French: amour courtois [amuʁ kuʁtwa]) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized Courtly love (Occitan: fin'amor [finaˈmuɾ]; French: amour courtois [amuʁ kuʁtwa]) 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 f The…

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. 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,

Since the late nineteenth century, cultural historians have noted that the importance of love increased during the Medieval and Early Modern European period (a phenomenon that was once referred to as the emergence of 'courtly love'). However, more recent works have shown a similar increase in Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Indian and Japanese cultures. Why such a convergent evolution in very different cultures? Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, we leverage literary history and build a database of ancient literary fiction for 19 geographical areas and 77 historical periods covering 3,800 years, from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Modern period. We first confirm that romantic elements have increased in Eurasian literary fiction over the past millennium, and that similar increases also occurred earlier, in Ancient Greece, Rome and Classical India. We then explore the ecological determinants of this increase. Consistent with hypotheses from cultural history and behavioural ecology, we show that a higher level of economic development is strongly associated with a greater incidence of love in narrative fiction (our proxy for the importance of love in a culture). To further test the causal role of economic development, we used a difference-in-difference method that exploits exogenous regional variations in economic development resulting from the adoption of the heavy plough in medieval Europe. Finally, we used probabilistic generative models to reconstruct the latent evo

Elaborates on the rules governing conduct of lovers and Courts of Love in France of the 12th century. Translation from medieval Latin. Elaborates on the rules governing conduct of lovers and Courts of Love in France of the 12th century. Translation from medieval Latin.