The Multiple in The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus

Abstract

The Art of Courtly Love (2002) was written in the twelfth century by Andreas Capellanus. Composed by three books, the work became the subject of study and controversy mainly due the discrepancy between the first two books and the third. While in the first and second books one can see the praising of the practice of love called courteous and the exaltation of the feminine, in the third and last book the author takes an opposite stance, enumerating the evils caused by this profane love, while vilifying women. In this article we seek to think about the discrepancy of The Art of Courtly Love starting from the identification of the author and the voices found in the composition of the work, therefore our analysis is based on the theoretical and methodological principles of Discourse Analysis, which enabled us to find out the constitutive polyphony of the work.