The Arts of Friendship: The Idealization of Friendship in Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature

262 Pages·1994·26.473 MB·English

by  Reginald Hyatte

BRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A.J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editorial Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 50
N^G/
THE ARTS OF FRIENDSHIP
The Idealization of Friendship in
Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature
BY
REGINALD HYATTE
EJ. BRILL
LEIDEN · NEW YORK · KÖLN
1994
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library
Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
94-3014
CIP
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 10018 0
© Copyright 1994 by E.J. Bull, Leiden, The Netherlands
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
uxori Mariae, alteri mi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD Page IX
CHAPTER ONE
The Pre-Christian Polemic About the Theory and Praxis
of Friendship 1
CHAPTER TWO
Ideals of Christian Friendships in the Twelfth and Thirteenth
Centuries: Amicitia Dei, Fraternal Charity, and the Problem
of Spiritual Friendship and Love 43
CHAPTER THREE
Sweeter Than Woman's Love. Praise of Chivalric Friendship
in Three Twelfth and Thirteenth-Century French Fictions:
Thomas' Tristan, the Prose Lancelot, and Ami and Amile 87
CHAPTER FOUR
Models of Authority in the New Age: Boccaccio, Laurent
de Premierfait, and Leon Battista Alberti 137
APPENDIX A
A Note on Didactic Works and Translations of the Thirteenth
Century 203
APPENDIX Β
Laurent de Premierfait's Prefaces to His Translation of
Cicero's Laelius 209
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 227
INDEX 243