''The Book of Good Love'' (''El libro de buen amor''), considered to be one of the masterpieces of

Spanish poetry This article concerns poetry in Spain. Medieval Spain The Medieval period covers 400 years of different poetry texts and can be broken up into five categories. Primitive lyrics Since the findings of the Kharjas, which are mainly two, three, o ...

, is a pseudo-biographical account of romantic adventures by

Juan Ruiz Juan Ruiz (), known as the Archpriest of Hita (''Arcipreste de Hita''), was a medieval Castilian poet. He is best known for his ribald, earthy poem, ''Libro de buen amor'' (''The Book of Good Love''). Biography Origins He was born in Alcal ...

, the

Archpriest The ecclesiastical title of archpriest or archpresbyter belongs to certain priests with supervisory duties over a number of parishes. The term is most often used in Eastern Orthodoxy and the Eastern Catholic Churches and may be somewhat analogous ...

of Hita, the earliest version of which dates from 1330; the author completed it with revisions and expansions in 1343. The work is considered as the best piece in the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

genre known as mester de clerecía. ''The Book'' begins with prayers and a guide as to how to read the work, followed by stories each containing a moral and often comical tale. The book contains a heterogeneous collection of various materials united around an alleged autobiographical narrative of the love affairs of the author, who is represented by the episodic character of Don Melón de la Huerta in part of the book. In the book, all layers of

late medieval The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

Spanish society are represented through their lovers. Fables and apologues are interspersed throughout the course of the main argument that constitute a collection of exempla. Likewise, you can find

allegories As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

, moralities, sermons, and

songs A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition ...

of the blind and of

Goliardic The goliards were a group of generally young clergy in Europe who wrote satirical Latin poetry in the 12th and 13th centuries of the Middle Ages. They were chiefly clerics who served at or had studied at the universities of France, Germany, Spai ...

- type schoolchildren. Profane lyrical compositions (serranillas, often parodic, derived from the pastorelas) are also included alongside other religious ones, such as

hymns A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

and

couplets A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the ...

to the Virgin or Christ. The narrative materials are based on the

parody A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of medieval elegiac comedies in Latin from a pseudo-

Ovidian Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...

school setting, such as De vetula and Pamphilus, in which the author is the protagonist of amorous adventures that alternate with poems related to him or her. Pamphilus is also cited in the Book of Good Love as the basis for the episode of Don Melón and Doña Endrina. In addition to materials derived from Ovid’s Ars Amandi, it also parodies the liturgy of the canonical hours or epics and in combat of

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival t ...

("Don Carnal") and

Lent Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Jesus, temptation by Satan, according ...

("Doña Cuaresma"). Other genres that can be found in the Book are planhz, such as Trotaconventos' death, a character that constitutes the clearest precedent for La Celestina or satires, such as those directed against female owners or the equalizing power of money; or fables, from the medieval aesopic tradition or pedagogical manuals, such as Facetus, which considers romantic education as part of human learning. Although Arabic sources have been proposed, current criticism favors the belief that The Book of Good Love descends from medieval clerical Latin literature.

Manuscripts

There are three existing

manuscripts A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced i ...

of the Book of Good Love, none of which are complete, whose divergences made

Ramón Menéndez Pidal Ramón Menéndez Pidal (; 13 March 1869 – 14 November 1968) was a Spanish philologist and historian."Ramon Menendez Pidal", ''Almanac of Famous People'' (2011) ''Biography in Context'', Gale, Detroit He worked extensively on the history of t ...

think that he could respond to two different redactions made by the author in different moments of his life: * Manuscript “S” named after its origin

Salamanca Salamanca () is a city in western Spain and is the capital of the Province of Salamanca in the autonomous community of Castile and León. The city lies on several rolling hills by the Tormes River. Its Old City was declared a UNESCO World Herit ...

; specifically from the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé. It was in the Royal Library of Madrid for a time and is now in the Library of the

University of Salamanca The University of Salamanca ( es, Universidad de Salamanca) is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the city of Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It was founded in 1218 by King Alfonso IX. It is t ...

(ms. 2663). The handwriting reveals that it is from the beginning of the

15th century The 15th century was the century which spans the Julian dates from 1 January 1401 ( MCDI) to 31 December 1500 ( MD). In Europe, the 15th century includes parts of the Late Middle Ages, the Early Renaissance, and the early modern period. ...

and is the most complete, as it incorporates additions that are not in the other two. The colophon is attributed to Alonso de Paradinas. * Manuscript “G” named after its time belonging to Benito Martínez Gayoso. Today, it can be found in the Library of the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy ( es, Real Academia Española, generally abbreviated as RAE) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with ...

. It is dated at the end of the 15th century. * Manuscript “T” named after having belonged to the Toledo Cathedral. Today, it is kept in the National Library of Spain. It is considered to have been written at the end of the 14th century.

Theme and structure

''The Book of Good Love'' is a varied and extensive composition of 1728

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have ei ...

s, centering on the fictitious autobiography of Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. Today three manuscripts of the work survive: the Toledo (T) and Gayoso (G) manuscripts originating from the fourteenth century, and the Salamanca (S) manuscript copied at the start of the fifteenth century by Alonso de Paradinas. All three manuscripts have various pages missing, which prevents a complete reading of the book, and the manuscripts vary extensively from each other due to the diversions of the authors. The work most commonly read today was suggested by

in 1898 based on sections from all three manuscripts. The title by which the work is known today was proposed by Menéndez Pidal in 1898, based on different passages from the book, especially those from frame 933b, whose first

hemistich A hemistich (; via Latin from Ancient Greek, Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin verse, Latin and Greek poetry, the hemist ...

reads “Good Love' said to the book.” As for the date of writing, it varies according to the manuscript: in one, the author affirms that he finished it in 1330, and in another in 1343; this last date would be a revision of the 1330 version in which Juan Ruiz added new compositions. The book is famous for its variety of: #Content (exempla, love stories, serranillas, didactic elements, lyrical compositions, etc.) #Meter (the cuaderna via, sixteen syllabic verses, Zejelesque stanzas, etc.) #Tone (serious, festive, religious, profane, etc.) The work is composed of the following: *The introduction, where the author explains how the book should be interpreted. It consists of a prayer in cuaderna via to God and the Virgin in which he requests their help, a

proem __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

in prose that adopts the genre of cult

sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. ...

(or divisio intra, but written in Spanish) that could be parodic, another prayer invoking the divine favor to finish the book, and finally ending with two lyrical couplets to Santa María. *A fictitious autobiography of the author in which he tells us of his relationships with women of different origin and social status: a

nun A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent.''The Oxford English Dictionary'', vol. X, page 599. The term is o ...

, a Moor, a housewife he spied praying, a baker, a noble woman and several mountain women (''serranas''), often helped by another woman named Urraca, better known as ''Trotaconventos'' (Trots-between-monasteries). *A collection of

exempla An exemplum (Latin for "example", pl. exempla, ''exempli gratia'' = "for example", abbr.: ''e.g.'') is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point. The word is also used to express an action performed by an ...

( apologues, fables and stories), which serve as moral lessons and closure for the episodes. *The dispute between the author and Love (''Don Amor, an

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

character''), in which he accuses Love of being the cause of the seven

mortal sin A mortal sin ( la, peccatum mortale), in Catholic theology, is a gravely sinful act which can lead to damnation if a person does not repent of the sin before death. A sin is considered to be "mortal" when its quality is such that it leads t ...

s. *The tale of the love affairs of Mr. Melon (don Melón) and Mrs. Endrina (dona Endrina), an adaptation of the medieval elegiac comedy Pamphilus de amore. *The allegorical account of the battle between

("Don Carnal") and

("Doña Cuaresma"), which is really a parody on medieval deeds. *A commentary of "Ars Amandi" (Art of Love) by Ovid *A series of religious lyrical compositions, typically dedicated to

Mary, mother of Jesus Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

*A number of profane lyrical compositions, such as that upon the death of “Trotaconventos.”

Interpretation

The title ''The Book of Good Love'' is inferred from the text, and who or what Good Love may be is not revealed by the author. ''The Book of Good Love'' explains how men must be careful about Love that can be Good (el buen amor) or Foolish (el loco amor). The Good Love is God's one and is preferred to the Foolish Love which only makes men sin. Juan Ruiz gives the reader a lot of examples to explain his theory and avoid Foolish Love in the name of the Good one. Due to its heterogeneity, the intention of the work is ambiguous. At certain points, it honors devoted love, while at others, it speaks highly of the skill involved in carnal love. Menéndez Pelayo was the first to point out the

character of the work, although he denied that there was any attack against

dogmas Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam o ...

or insurrection against authority, which others later confirmed to be an attitude characteristic of Goliardish poetry. Specialists have also discussed the possible didactic nature of the Book of Good Love. Authors such as

José Amador de los Ríos José Amador de los Ríos y Serrano (30 April 1818 – 17 February 1878) was a Spanish intellectual, primarily a historian and archaeologist of art and literature. He was a graduate in history of the Complutense University of Madrid. In 1844 h ...

, Leo Spitzer or

María Rosa Lida de Malkiel María Rosa Lida de Malkiel, born Maria Rosa Lida (November 7, 1910 – September 25, 1962), was an Argentine philologist. Notable as an Hispanist medievalist, she came to the United States on a Rockefeller Foundation program of study. Beginn ...

defend didacticism as an inseparable part of the work. However, authors such as

Américo Castro Américo Castro y Quesada (May 4, 1885 – July 25, 1972) was a Spanish cultural historian, philologist, and literary critic who challenged some of the prevailing notions of Spanish identity, raising controversy with his conclusions that Spaniards ...

and Sánchez Albornoz deny it, and consider Juan Ruiz to be more cynical than moralistic and more hypocritical than pious. Juan Luis Alborg, in turn, analogizes the work to the way in which

Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...

used chivalric novels to shed his own irony and personal vision; similarly, Juan Luis Alborg asserts that "the Archpriest is contained within medieval didactic forms.” His work reflects the multiculturalism of Toledo of his time. Among the various women he tries to make love to (the only case in which he has carnal relations occurs when the mountain-dweller "La Chata" assaults him, although the savage mountain-dwellers were characters of a highly typified literary genre) there is a Moor, and he boasts of his talent as a musician, composing music for Andalusian and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

dance. Also during the battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma he travels to the “aljama” or town hall of Toledo, where the butchers and rabbis invite him to spend a "good day." María Rosa Lida de Malkiel wanted to see the influence of the genre of narrative in rhymed prose, the maqāmat, cultivated by several peninsular authors in Arabic and Hebrew during the XII-XIV centuries. The book also contains a passage in which a Goliardish-type protest is presented against the position of Gil de Albornoz who intended to extend the papal doctrine of compulsory

celibacy Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both, usually for religious reasons. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, th ...

to his diocese. This clashed with the Hispanic tradition of the barraganía or contract of coexistence of a priest with a woman, a custom more established in a multicultural territory such as the diocese of Toledo, once the source of the heresy of Elipando's adoptionism, generated by the coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians. This is expressed in the "Canticle of the clerics of Talavera,” where he angrily protests against the provisions of the archbishop against the barraganía in the archdiocese. Such a protest was the one that could lead to the prison on the part of the archbishop. This critical stance towards the high clergy, like the rest of the lighthearted and critical content of his book, makes it akin to Goliardish literature. Daniel Eisenberg posited that "good love," for Juan Ruiz, meant love for the owner, the single woman, who was neither a virgin nor married. The "bad love" against which a spear breaks was the love of the "garzones" or bachelors. Instead of the unbearable young man (Don Hurón), one can choose that which the text below presents: the "small owner."

References

External links

Selections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in ''Open Iberia/América'' (open access teaching anthology)
original text in Spanish

comprehensive readers' research and critique at Centro Virtual Cervantes
''El libro de buen amor''
'T' manuscript (14th century), digitized and available at Biblioteca Digital Hispánica,

Biblioteca Nacional de España The Biblioteca Nacional de España (''National Library of Spain'') is a major public library, the largest in Spain, and one of the largest in the world. It is located in Madrid, on the Paseo de Recoletos. History The library was founded by ...

Extensive Bibliography by M.A. Vetterling on the LBA {{DEFAULTSORT:Book Of Good Love, The 1330 books 1343 books Spanish poetry

Manuscripts

Theme and structure

Interpretation

Further reading

References

External links