Both Yes and No

Andrew the Chaplain’s treatise On Love ( De amore , c. 1184–1190) presents a complex and contradictory view of love, reflecting the dialectical thinking prevalent in much twelfth- and thirteenth-century literature. The treatise, partly structured as a series of dialogues and hypothetical scenarios, explores in turn the pursuit, maintenance, and avoidance of erotic love. While the first two books of On Love describe amor in terms of passionate devotion, its third and final book remarkably made a complete volte-face, condemning all kinds of gallantry and infatuation, possibly – as in the case of Andrew’s contemporary Chrétien de Troyes – as a response to the sacramentalism and moral exhortations of the ecclesiastical Reform movement.