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The concept of courtliness forms the theme of this collection of essays. Focused on works written in the Francophone world between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, they examine courtliness as both an historical privilege and a literary ideal, and as a concept that operated on and was informed by complex social and economic realities. Several essays reveal how courtliness is subject to satire or is the subject of exhortation in works intended for noblemen and women, not to mention ambitious bourgeois. Others, more strictly literary in their focus, explore the witty, thoughtful and innovative responses of writers engaged in the conscious process of elevating the new vernacular culture through the articulation of its complexities and contradictions. The volume as a whole, uniting philosophical, theoretical, philological, and cultural approaches, demonstrates that medieval 'courtliness' is an ideal that fascinates us to this day. It is thus a fitting tribute to the scholarship of Matilda Tomaryn Bruckner, in its exploration of the prrofound and wide-ranging ideas that define her contribution to the field. Daniel E. O'Sullivan is Associate Professor of French at the University of Mississippi; Laurie Shepard is Associate Professor of Italian at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Contributors: Peter Haidu, Donald Maddox, Michel-André Bossy, Kristin Burr, Joan Tasker Grimbert, David Hult, Virgine Greene, Logan Whalen, Evelyn Birge Vitz, Elizabeth W. Poe, Daniel E. O'Sullivan, William Schenck, Nadia Margolis, Laine Doggett, E. Jane Burns, Nancy Freeman Regalado, Laurie Shephard, Sarah White.
for Matilda whose nobility of spirit is exemplified by
clarity of thought and eloquence
Charles of Anjou (1226–85), the youngest brother of King Louis IX, entered Italy in 1265 on a crusade: offered the Kingdom of Sicily by the French Pope Urban IV, he had first to extirpate the Hohenstaufen “race of vipers.” In June 1265, another French pope, Clement IV, crowned Charles. The king's military success transformed the political, economic, and social landscape in Italy; it promoted an enduring alliance of the church, French military power, and Florentine capital. Initiatives by Charles and the empowered papacy led to changes in the composition of the nobility and intensified debates about the legitimacy of the supremacy of the nobility in Guelf comuni. Questions about courtliness and the nature of true nobility also reverberated in poetic circles. In the years following Charles's triumph, the shape of courtliness was the subject of political and poetic debate in the Italian comuni, and nobility (onor, valor, gentilesa/gentilezza) became a fundamental sign defining selfworth, courtly love, and poetic composition. This paper examines three milestones in the poetic debate about nobility that are associated directly or indirectly with Charles's court and presence in Italy: the didactic composi- tions of Sordello and of Brunetto Latini, and the debate between Guittone d'Arezzo and Guido Guinizelli.
The term “courtliness,” derived from Latin curialitas and curia meaning “senate” or “meeting,” pervades discussions of medieval literature, so much so that scholars may take it for granted. Against the medieval social landscape of daily violence, courtliness denotes a civilizing concept whereby behavior in a potentially explosive center of political and social ambition – the court – becomes ritualized. Courtliness aimed to sublimate a warrior's violent impulses and channel them in both speech and deed to a series of socially sanctioned behaviors. When one knight believed himself to possess superior martial skill, proving it at a tournament was preferred to mortal combat on the battlefield. Or when a knight sought the favors of a beautiful lady, before turning to kidnap and rape he could woo her with clever and seductive words. However, if Freud correctly intuited in Civilization and its Discontents that humans harbor an inherent proclivity towards violence and that civilization constitutes a trade-off of one's immediate gratification of desire for bodily and psychological security, courtliness is not a universal psychological condition, but a social response grounded in history. Civilizing efforts predate the Middle Ages: courtliness was one effort that can be identified with a period of history – the so-called Middle Ages – and studied over time.
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