Thematic Images for Trobairitz (Women Troubadours)
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Thematic Images for Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine & Courtly Love Ladies
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Thematic Images for Famous Troubadours
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Thematic Images for Troubadour Chanson-sheet music
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De amore (c.1185), treatise on courtly love, which codified the rules of courtly love
Courtly Love, or Cortezia
Courtly Love's Wound
In the Art of Courtly Love, the entire spectrum of love--the joys and the sorrows--was recognized, and a great part of it (in the "Code of Love") was the problem of unrequited or lost love.
Unrequited Love
"The Wounds of Love" (Bouguereau, 1897)
Thematic Images for Modern Troubadours
It needs to be pointed out that the GS will be using two terms interchangeably that geographically identify the region of what we know today as southern France: Occitania (or the Occitan) and Languedoc. This can be confusing, but it's the standard usage among scholars and other writers dealing with the Troubadours. (The "Troubadours of the Provence" is also the standard designation, even though in the 12th century the region of the Provence was one among several provinces--but not the original home--where the troubadours lived. Hence the entire cultural-lingustic designation for the troubadours: Provençal.) "Languedoc" is both a geographical and linguistic (langue d'oc) designation. As a geographical region of the Middlle Ages, Languedoc represented a greater area than the province of the same name today (as does the Provence). When scholars use the desigantion Languedoc for the south of France wherein dwelt the troubadours, they are referring to the entire region where a Latin-based Romance language was spoken (langue d'oc, as opposed to the north's language of langue d'oil). For a more detailed explanation, see my text above, "Geography & Language of the Troubadours."
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fractured (fractal) heart
For a different take on what the erotic relationship between a woman and a man--whether one of the pair is human or not--looks like when it is "Impossible Love," click on image. >>>
click on image to access the "Troubadours & Beloved" page
