Shaping Medieval and Renaissance Thought: Love, Logic, and Humanism

The Conception of Love in Troubadour Poetry

Courtly Love: An Ideology of Desire

What historically distinguishes troubadour poetry is its treatment of love, often referred to as courtly love. This ideology of love, characteristic of the poetry, introduces desire as a value in itself. It typically involves a long distance from the beloved object, as this distance can perpetuate desire. This type of love often entails a supplicant's consideration, a concept that reproduces the mindsets of European feudal society. Courtly love acquires a noble and distinctive lay character. A culture of love was created around it, where certain behaviors might be considered bad manners or even lust.

Ramon Llull's Philosophical Contributions

Llull's Critique of Authority and the Art of Discovery

Ramon Llull had realized that it was necessary to abandon the use of authorities based on sacred texts that prevented reaching definitive conclusions. In medieval thought, the world was often seen as a manifestation of God; it was said that the world was a book from which we could learn about God. Llull's primary purpose was to demonstrate that the great truths of Christianity derived from the very structure of the universe.

Llull's Ars (Art) is a system for explaining reality that leads to the necessary acceptance of God as the sole reason for all things. For this purpose, Llull wrote treatises on theology, philosophy, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. The Ars organizes thoughts in a systematic way, using a symbolic notation that includes alphabets and figures. This approach aimed to transform thinking into a calculation process, ensuring that reasoning and the discovery of accurate insights could be exercised in a foolproof way.

Bernat Metge and the Rise of Humanism

Petrarch's Influence and the Humanist Movement

The work of Petrarch revealed more than just a stylistic preoccupation. He had been among the first to initiate the philological study of classical antiquity's texts in the modern sense. He helped shape the new cultural world of humanism. To recover classical texts, humanists sought, through textual criticism and the comparison of various manuscripts, to restore the original form and meaning of ancient texts. Humanists also tried to bring medieval Latin closer to classical Latin.

Petrarch represents a new figure: a liberated writer. This new conception of literature influenced Bernat Metge. Humanism's ideas involved a criticism of customs. Correcting these customs required facing them with a critically independent stance. Treating texts from classical antiquity exacerbated the humanitarian conscience regarding the diversity of men and the uniqueness of each, providing themes and ideas to build an alternative to medieval times.