Review of Cherchi, Paolo, 'Andreas and the ambiguity of courtly love', Toronto/Buffalo/London, University of Toronto Press, 1994: cloth; pp. xv, 194; R.R.P. CAN$50.00.

Abstract

This powerfully argued volume provides a new reading of the 'De amore' of Andreas Capellanus. In the process it affirms the views of various critics of the last thirty years, such as D. W. Robertson, E. T. Donaldson, and F. L. Uuley, all of whom felt that the traditional notion, that Andreas was mocking married love, was too simple and in need of exposition as to the inherent ambiguity of his model of courtly love. As Cherchi stresses, the style used by he himself, a 'somewhat scholastic 'modus tractandi' (p. x), has come from his own teaching experiences. Of course, this is the nature of the original exposition and therefore is no bad thing, either historically or as a mode of clearer presentation of the present concepts.