Tag Archives: Geoffrey Chaucer

Happy Valentine’s Day

14 Sunday Feb 2016

Posted by in Feasts

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320px-Les_Très_Riches_Heures_du_duc_de_Berry_février

Février, Les Très Riches Heures de Jean de France, duc de Berry (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Happy Valentine’s Day to you!

Today is Valentine’s Day: la Saint-Valentin. My best wishes to all of you. ♥

I have written several posts on Valentine’s Day and did some research again yesterday. This time, I read Wikipedia’s entry on Valentine’s day in which it is stated that there is no link between Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day. Lupercalia was replaced by Candlemas. As for Valentine’s Day, a celebration of Romantic love, it was all but invented by Chaucer who called the day “seynt” Valentine’s Day.

When Chaucer was released from captivity, during the Hundred Years’ War, he took to England the French Roman de la Rose, a work of literature that epitomizes courtly love. However, it was an exchange. Charles d’Orléans, who was detained in England for 25 years during the Hundred Years’ War, took to France the lore of Valentine’s Day as it existed in England and a large number of his poems refer to Valentine. According to the legend, as expressed by Chaucer, birds mate on 14 February.

In The Parlement of Foules (1382), Chaucer wrote:

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was on Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

Candlemas

So let us make matters clear. It is reported that Pope Saint Gelasius I (494–96 CE) wanted to replace a raucous pagan feast, Lupercalia (from lupus, wolf), with a Christian feast. Lupercalia became the feast of the Purification of the Virgin, but it also commemorated the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple and the Meeting of the Lord, when Simeon’s wish came true, Simeon was an old man who wanted to see Jesus before he died and, having seen Jesus, said that he could now leave. His words are the words of a canticle (un cantique), a song of praise and joy, entitled the “Nunc Dimittis.” The new feast was Candlemas, which  was celebrated on 2 February. Here is a list of feasts associated with Candlemas:

  • the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin
  • the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
  • the Meeting of the Lord (see Simeon, Gospel of Luke, Wikipedia)

Note, however, that the above-mentioned feasts are called Candlemas, la Chandeleur, which suggests a possible festival of lights. From the most remote and pagan antiquity, humans have always celebrated the degree of light and darkness from season to season. Carnival season is now over. It ended on Ash Wednesday, the 10th of February, the day after Mardi Gras, a day of revelry and merriment.

Easter: the moveable feast

  • near the vernal equinox

Our next feast is Easter, which is celebrated near the vernal equinox (equal night), a day when night and day are approximately the same length. This year, the vernal equinox is 20 March and Easter, a moveable feast, will be celebrated on 27 March. But there is more light today than on Christmas day, the day of the longest night. On 14 February, we therefore celebrate Valentine’s Day because the days are getting longer.

St Valentine’s Day

  • Valentine’s Day and the Ides of February
  • Lupercalia and Valentine’s Day

So Valentine’s Day, a feast honouring a St Valentine (la Saint-Valentin), did not replace Lupercalia, but Lupercalia was a fertility ritual and Valentine’s day, the day on which birds mate. There is a link. Moreover, the Ides of February, which fell on 13 February, were Lupercalia. (See Lupercalia, Wikipedia.) The better-known Ides are the Ides of March, “the 15th day of the Roman month of Martius[,]” a day associated with the assassination of Julius Caesar who developed the Julian Calendar. (See The Ides of March, Wikipedia.)

The Gregorian Calendar: the Ides of February

The Julian Calendar was replaced by the Gregorian calendar, because feasts, Easter in particular, no longer matched the seasons. Gregorian refers to Pope Gregory XIII and the Gregorian Calendar was introduced in 1582. Candlemas, which replaced Lupercalia, would be celebrated on 2 February, but the Ides of February remained the middle of the month of February which is when Valentine’s Day is celebrated.àhere’s another link.

Gregory_XIII

Pope Gregory XIII by Lavinia Fontana (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Circle_of_Adam_Elsheimer_The_Lupercalian_Festival_in_Rome

The Lupercalian Festival in Rome (ca. 1578–1610), drawing by the circle of Adam Elsheimer, showing the Luperci dressed as dogs and goats, with Cupid and personifications of fertility. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Saint Valentine’s Day is listed on a page entitled: Posts on Love Celebrated. I have made one small change to make sure Lupercalia is linked to Candlemas, la Chandeleur and Valentine’s Day to its proper sources: a martyr, a legend, the festivities associated with Februarius and, perhaps, the Ides of February, that could not be moved to 2 February or Candlemas but could be the day when St Valentine’s Day was celebrated.

800px-Sousse_mosaic_calendar_February

The Soussa Mosaic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Februarius panel from the 3rd-century mosaic of the months at El Djem, Tunisia (Roman Africa)

Seasons, months (see Roman calendar, Wikipedia), darkness, and light have long been celebrated in every culture. An eloquent example is the Soussa Mosaic. (See Februarius, Wikipedia.)

My very best wishes! ♥

Thomas Tallis: “If ye love me”

valentinesday-hanging-hearts

© Micheline Walker
14 February 2016
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Pietro Bembo by Titian, and the Vernacular

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Art, Vernacular

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15bembo

Portrait of Pietro Bembo by Titian, 1540 (WikiArt.org.)

A few posts ago, I listed two old posts as related articles. One was about the Petrarchan Movement, the other, about Joachim du Bellay.

In 1525, Cardinal Pietro Bembo (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January 1547) wrote Prose della volgar lingua, a text in which he encouraged authors to write in Italian, the vernacular, rather than Latin. The vernacular was Italian as spoken in Florence and Tuscany. For Pietro Bembo, however, it was the Italian used by Francesco Petrarch (20 May 1470 – either 11 January or 18 January 1547), hence the Petrarchan Movement. I also mentioned authors Dante Alighieri (1625 – 1321) and Giovanni Boccaccio (c. 1313- 21 December 1375).

The Madrigal

As for musicians, they too were to set to music texts written in Italian, rather than Latin. In the area of music, Francesco Landini (c. 1325 or 1335 – 2 September 1397) was the first writer of madrigals, a word meaning in one’s mother tongue: madre in Spanish.

France: Du Bellay

A few years later, in 1549, French poet Joachim du Bellay (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560) published his Défense et illustration de la langue française. It became acceptable to write poetry in one’s native language. Du Bellay was a poet, not a composer.

England: Chaucer

As for England, Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), who took the Roman de la Rose to England, he had also advocated the use of English, rather than Latin or French, as a literary language. He translated part of the Roman de la Rose. You may recall that until the end of the Hundred Years’ War, French was spoken at the court of England and Edward VII felt he was a legitimate heir to the throne of France. He wasn’t by virtue of the Salic Law. A woman could not ascend the throne of France. Edward VII’s mother was French. Hence the fratricidal nature of the Hundred Years’ War, a war of succession.

sans-titre

Shakespeare, the Chandos Portrait, sometimes attributed to Titian (Photo credit: Art History Today)

Titian (Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio)

Portrayed about is William Shakespeare (c 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) the Chandos Portrait, is sometimes attributed to Titian. (See Art History Today.)

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With warm greetings to all of you. ♥ 

Titian
Ennio Morricone (Deborah’s Theme)

Titian%20side%20profile

Self-portrait by Titian
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

© Micheline Walker
26 January 2016
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The Hundred Years’ War: its Literary Legacy

24 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by in History, Literature, War

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129333-050-D3E1E1B8

A painting of Geoffrey Chaucer as pilgrim in the Canterbury Tales’ Ellesmere Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are leaving our Anglo-Norman authors to investigate the literature dating back to the Hundred Years’ War.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), the “Father” of English literature, is our main figure and a transitional figure. He took to England the French Roman de la Rose, written by Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1230-1235) and Jean de Meun(g) (1275-1280) and he translated part of it as the Romaunt of the Rose. Pre-Raphaelite Frederick Startridge Ellis (1830–1901) translated the Roman de la Rose in its entirety.

Chaucer’s name is derived from the French le chausseur (the shoemaker), which suggests French ancestry. Moreover, Chaucer knew French. This would explain his ability to translate literary works written in French as well as his being assigned diplomatic missions that required a knowledge of French. For instance, as a courtier, he was asked to make an attempt to end the Hundred Years’ War. Chaucer was a man of many talents.  

The Hundred Years’ War

In 1359, during the Hundred Years’ War, Chaucer travelled to France with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence[.] In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Reims.  Edward III paid £16 to ransom him, a large sum of money that did not cover in full the amount demanded by France. Ransoms helped finance wars, hence the idiomatic ‘king’s ransom.’

The Romaunt of the Rose & Courtly Love

In all likelihood, it would at that time that Chaucer took to England the above-mentioned Roman de la Rose, which epitomizes courtly love. The number of the 22,000-line Roman de la Rose Chaucer translated seems of lesser importance than the role he played in introducing the conventions of courtly love to an English public. Chaucer’s the Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde reflect his familiarity with courtly love.

Valentine’s Day

In 1340, when Charles, Duke of Orleans was released, after 25 years of captivity in England, he took to the court of France much of the legend of Valentine’s Day, which may or may not have included the myth about birds mating on 14 February, Valentine’s Day. In 1340, Chaucer had yet to write his 700-line Parlement of Foules (1343 – 1400) in which he speaks of birds mating of 14 February. Nor had Chaucer come into contact with Petrarch (20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374), and Boccaccio (1313 – 21 December 1375) authors whose works can be associated with Chaucer’s.

In all likelihood, the most important work our ransomed Chaucer took to England is the above-mentioned allegorical Roman de la Rose, which epitomizes courtly love. As noted, Chaucer translated at least part of the Roman de la Rose into The Romaunt of the Rose. However, the number of verses he translated seems less important than his introducing the conventions of courtly love to an English and probably courtly public. Chaucer’s Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde reflect his familiarity with courtly love.

Reynard the Fox

Chaucer also used ‘Reynard material’ in The Nun’s Priest’s Tale. He wrote a “Chanticleer and the Fox.” The Roman de la Rose and the Roman de Renart (Reynard the Fox) are the French Middle Ages’ foremost literary achievements.

Renart_illumination

Chanticleer and the Fox, in a medieval manuscript miniature (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The “Father” of English Literature

Yet, Chaucer was very much an English writer. He is considered the “Father” of English literature and is credited with validating the use of the English language, as a literary language, in a country where French and Latin were “the dominant literary languages.”[1] (See Geoffrey Chaucer, Wikipedia.)

Shakespeare and other Authors

The Hundred Years’ War also exerted an influence on Shakespeare, the co-author of Edward III. Moreover, Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) evokes the presence of the French in England in his Tess of the d’Huberville (1891). However, characters inhabiting Hardy’s ‘fictional’ Wessex would be the descendants of Normans who settled in England when it was conquered by William, Duke of Normandy.

Conclusion

The Hundred Years’ War was not a continuous struggle, but it was a very long and complex conflict that ended the most vigorous attempt on the part of England to claim the French throne. Marriages had made French the language of the English court and the English had relatives in France as did the French in England.

But this is where we end this post.

With kindest regards to everyone. ♥

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[1] Pietro Bembo, would validate the use of the vernacular in Italian literature. In France, this role was played by poet Joachim du Bellay (c. 1522 – 1 January 1560).

arts-graphics-2008_1184459a© Micheline Walker
24 January 2016
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Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds, 2nd edition

14 Saturday Feb 2015

Posted by in Feasts, Literature, Love

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CUPID OR L'AMOUR MOUILLÉ, BY WILLIAM-ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU (1825-1905)

Cupid or l’Amour mouillé, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Valentine’s Day

Greek and Roman Antiquity

Love has long been celebrated. In ancient Greece, the marriage of Jupiter to Hera was commemorated between mid-January and mid-February. As for the Romans, in mid-February, they held the festival of the Lupercalia. According to Britannica, the Lupercalia was

[t]he festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery.[i]

At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced the Lupercalia with a Christian feast, the “Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” to be celebrated on the 2nd of February. It is said that, in 496, the Pope issued a decree that made the 14th of February the feast of at least one saint named Valentine. However, according to Britannica, “Valentine’s Day did not come to be celebrated as a day of romance from about the 14th century.”[ii]

At any rate, the Lupercalia was eventually replaced by Saint Valentine’s Day, celebrated on the 14th of February. The 14th of February is no longer a feast day in the Catholic Church. But it is a feast day in the Anglican Church. Moreover, Ireland and France have relics of St Valentine, Valentine of Terni in Dublin and an anonymous St Valentine in France.

Saints and Martyrs

There is conflicting information concerning saints named Valentine.  It would be my opinion that the only st Valentine we can associate with Valentine’s Day is the saint who slipped his jailor’s daughter a note worded “from your Valentine.”

In French, Valentine’s Day is still called la Saint-Valentin, which suggests that there is a saint and martyr named Valentin. In fact, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there may be three saints named Valentine:

  1. Valentine of Terni, the bishop of Interrama, now Terni, also a 3rd-century martyr buried on the Via Flaminia,
  2. a Valentine who suffered in Africa with several companions, and
  3. the Valentine who restored his jail keeper’s daughter’s sight and slipped her a note that read “From your Valentine,” the night before his martyrdom. If this Valentine is associated with Valentine’s Day, it is because of the note he slipped to his jail keeper’s daughter which read: “From your Valentine.” He would be our Valentine or St Valentine.

Valentine’s Day Cards: The Origin 

St Valentine, the third Valentine is mentioned, albeit inconspicuously, in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend. Moreover, the Roman Martyrology, “the Catholic Church‘s official list of recognized saints,” gives only one Saint Valentine, the martyr who was executed and buried on the Via Flaminia and whose feast day is 14th February. (Saint Valentine, Wikipedia.) This saint’s only link with St Valentine’s day is the note he slipped to his jailer’s daughter: “From your Valentine.” This note would be the origin of Valentine’s Day cards.

St Valentine was martyred about c. 270 CE, probably 269, by Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus.[iii]  According to the emperor, married men were lesser soldiers.  This St Valentine could be Valentine of Rome. But it could also be that this Valentine, Valentine of Rome, is the same person as Valentine of Terni, a priest and bishop also martyred in the 3rd century CE and buried on the Via Flaminia. This view is not supported by the Encyclopædia Britannica.[iv]

If this saint is associated with Valentine’s Day, the note signed “From your Valentine” is the only link between a saint named Valentine and Valentine’s Day. The note constitutes the required romantic element.

The Romantic Element

Chaucer: the day birds mate
Le Roman de la Rose
tHE lADY AND THE uNICORN

As mentioned above, Saint Valentine’s Day was not the feast of lovers (i.e. people in love) until a myth was born according to which birds mated on February the 14th. This myth is probably quite ancient but it finds its relatively recent roots is Geoffrey Chaucer‘s (14th century) Parliament of Foules. Othon III de Grandson (1340 and 1350 – 7 August 1397) (Fr Wikipedia), a poet and captain at the court of England spread the legend to the Latin world in the 14th century. This legend is associated with the famous mille-fleurs, (thousand flowers) tapestry called La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn), housed in the Cluny Museum in Paris. Finally, Chaucer translated part of Le Roman de la Rose.

N.B. The first version of the Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxton’s 1478 edition.  Caxton translated and printed The Golden Legend in 1483.

Dissemination


the Legend about birds mating
Othon III de Grandson
Charles d’Orléans
Chaucer: Roman de la rose

It would appear that Othon III de Grandson, our poet and captain, wrote a third of his poetry in praise of that tradition. Othon III de Grandson wrote:

  • La Complainte de Saint Valentin (I & II), or Valentine’s Lament,
  • La Complaincte amoureuse de Sainct Valentin Gransson (The Love Lament of St Valentine Gransson),
  • Le Souhait de Saint Valentin (St Valentine’s Wish),
  • and Le Songe Saint Valentin (St Valentine’s Dream). (See Othon III de Grandson [in French], Wikipedia.)

Knowledge of these texts was disseminated in courtly circles, the French court in particular, at the beginning of the 15th century, by Charles d’Orléans. At some point, Othon’s Laments were forgotten, but St Valentine’s Day was revived in the 19th century.

In short, St Valentine’s Day is about

  1. a martyr who, the night before his martyrdom, slipped a note to the lady he had befriended, his jailor’s blind daughter, signing it “From your Valentine.”
  2. It is about a legend, found in Chaucer‘s Parliament of Foules, according to which birds mate on the 14th of February.
  3. It is associated with an allegorical tapestry: La Dame à la licorne.
  4. It is about Othon III de Grandson (FR, Wikipedia), a poet and a captain who devoted thirty percent of his poetry to the traditions surrounding St Valentine’s Day.
  5. It is also about courtly love and, specifically, Le Roman de la Rose, part of which was translated into English by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  6. Finally, it is about Charles d’Orléans who circulated the lore about St Valentine in courtly circles in France.

There is considerable information in Wikipedia’s entry of St Valentine’s Day.  It was or has become a trans-cultural tradition.

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Happy Valentine’s Day

Folk Art Valentine, 1875

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[i] “Valentine’s Day”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2012 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>.

[ii] “Saint Valentine”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622028/Saint-Valentine>.

[iii] “Claudius II Gothicus”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120521/Claudius-II-Gothicus>.

[iv] “Saint Valentine”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622028/Saint-Valentine>.

 
Andreas Scholl sings Dowland‘s “Flow my Tears”
 
   
cupidangel
© Micheline Walker
14 February 2012
14 February 2015
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St Valentine’s Day: Posts on Love Celebrated

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by in Feasts, Literature, Love

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Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manusctipt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manuscript (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This is a compilation of my posts on Valentine’s Day—the first four posts—or posts related to Valentine’s Day. I would suggest you open Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds first, particularly if you do not have the time to read more than one post. Originally these posts did not feature an embedded video.  I have now embedded my melodies.

A Happy Valentine’s Day to all of you!

On Geoffrey Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day

As we know, Valentine’s Day was not a romantic day until Chaucer made it so.  In The Parlement of Foules (1882), Chaucer wrote

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

The above illumination is from one of the 86 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, the Ellesmere Manuscript.  Included among these 86 manuscripts is William Caxton’s printing of the Tales, one of the earliest printed books: 1478.  Very early printed works, published between 1450 and 1501, are called incunables.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468) is considered the first printer (c. 1439).  Early printers, printers of incunables, sometimes left blank spaces where enluminures or illuminations were inserted.  Historiated first letters are quite common in incunables.

Historiated Initial, click to enlarge

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—ooo—

John Dowland‘s “Goe from my window”

220px-Romaunt_rose_chaucer© Micheline Walker
14 February 2014
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Courtly Love or Fin’Amor

07 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Courtly Love

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Eleanor of Aquitaine

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Trouvères and Troubadors

I was hoping to discuss Richard de Fournival’s Bestiaire d’amour FR (1201- ?1260) a medieval philosopher and trouvère (Northern French: langue d’oïl).  Trouvères (from trouveur: finder) were Northern France‘s counterparts for troubadours, who spoke in langue d’oc, from old Occitane French.  The trouvères and troubadours composed and sang songs associated with chivalry and the code of conduct of Knights, surprisingly consistent with the rules of courtly love.  They traveled from court to court but disappeared at the time the Black Death, but not necessarily because of the plague.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Although I will attempt to show a few illuminations from the Bestiaire d’amour, images are difficult to find.  Moreover, having reread the text, I believe we need a broader starting-point.  Richard de Fournival wrote a Bestiary, but it is a bestiary of love, courtly love.  Moreover, Master Richard’s Bestiary is allegorical as is the Roman de la Rose.  Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400) who transformed Saint Valentine’s Day into the romantic feast it has become, translated part the Roman de la Rose as the Romaunt of the Rose and included his translation in his Legend of Good Women, a poem.

Two sources: Ovid and the “Song of Songs”

Courtly love is not a European institution.  It has deep roots, two of which are texts by Roman writer Ovid, best known for his Metamorphoses, as well as the Song of Songs, a book of the Old Testament also known in English as the Canticle of Canticles, written circa 900 BCE.

Courtly Love: Roman Antiquity

It would be difficult to trace the origins of courtly love.  I should think it constitutes a permanent feature of love, but a feature that finds pinnacles at certain points in history.  For instance, Roman poet Ovid, Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE – 18 CE), known mainly for his Metamorphoses, wrote:

The very title of Remedia Amoris suggests that once the lover is wounded by Cupid‘s arrow, he is possessed by love.  Love is viewed as a disease.  Such is the case with Tristan and Yseult (or Yseut, Iseult, Isolde…).  Tristan has to take Iseult to Cornwall where she will marry his uncle Mark.  As they are sailing from Ireland to Cornwall, she and Tristan mistakenly drink the love potion Yseult was to drink with Mark on their wedding night. Tristan and Yseult are now inescapably “in love” (l’amour fatal).  Yseult marries Mark, but on their wedding night, her maid, a virgin, sleeps with Mark.  As for Yseult, she spends the night with Tristan and sneaks back to her husband’s room in the morning.

The Celtic legend of Tristan and Yseult (EN) Tristan et Iseut (FR), was written in France, in a Norman language, by 12th-century Norman poet Béroul, and in Old French, by 12th-century British poet Thomas of Britain.  The story of Tristan and Yseult has exerted considerable influence on Western art.  Among other works, it inspired:

The Matter of Britain and the Matter of France: Mythologies 

Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) is a pseudohistorical account of British history, called the Matter of Britain, of which there remains 250 manuscripts.  It could be defined as a mythology evoking a Golden Age.  The Matter of France, featuring Charlemagne is also a mythology.  Its main poem, an epic poem, is La Chanson de Roland (FR) or Song of Roland (EN).

However, the quest of chivalric epic poems is a quest for the Holy Grail.  As for courtly love, its Holy Grail is the heart of a woman who has not swallowed a magical love potion and whose love her suitor must earn by following rules of conduct, as in chivalry.

(Please click on image to enlarge it.)

384px-Arthur_Beardsley_-_IsoldeFin’amor

Although it has deeper roots, fin’amor is an art of love developed in Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne and ducal Burgundy.  Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 or 1124 – 1 April 1204) is said to have brought the ethics of courtly love from Aquitaine to the Court of France.  She had first married Louis VII, king of France, but the marriage was annulled after the birth of their second daughter Alix de France

Aubrey Beardsley: Isolde, Jugendstil illustration in Pan, Berlin, 1899-1900

Fin’Amor’s Code

Courtly love was codified by Andreas Capellanus in his book entitled De amore, written in 1185 at the request of Marie de Champagne, Aleanor of Aquitaine’s first daughter, by Louis VII.  De amore has affinities with the Carte de Tendre, a French seventeenth-century allegorical map of love.  However, courtly love’s masterpiece is the Roman de la Rose.

My next post will therefore deal with the Roman de la Rose which we will examine using the Roman de la Rose Digital Library, a project of Johns Hopkins University, and La Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF).

László Czidra, Camerata Hungarica & Ars Renata

romandelarose-1© Micheline Walker
6 March 2013
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A Frivolous Love Story: “histoire de coeur”

16 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Art, History

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Vases with Red Poppies, by Van Gogh (Photo credit: Wikipedia

Vases with Red Poppies, by Van Gogh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been doing maintenance work on my posts and ended up reinserting images that had disappeared and revising certain blogs.  I also discovered a missing blog on Chaucer & Valentine’s Day and rediscovered Charles d’Orléans.

Charles d’Orléans (24 November 1394, Paris – 5 January 1465, Amboise) was a French Duke who was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, on the 25th of October 1415, and spent nearly 25 years in England, as a “prisoner.”  Because he was a possible heir to the throne of France, the English king, Henry V, would not allow him to leave England.cvalhrt17

Charles’ first wife died in childbirth, but their daughter Joan survived.  His second wife died while he was a prisoner in England.  But when he returned to France, he married 14-year-old Marie de Clèves (19 September 1426 – 23 August 1487).  He was then 46.  She gave birth to the first of their three children, Marie d’Orléans, in 1457.  Their second child, born in 1462, would be Louis XII, king of France.  Their third child, Anne of Orleans, was born in 1464.

When Charles was released, in 1440, “speaking better English than French,” according to the English chronicler Raphael Holinshed (Charles d’Orléans, Wikipedia), he had become not only a poet, but an excellent poet.  One of his poems is exquisite.  It’s about winter: Le temps a laissé son manteau…  (The weather left its coat…).  It is included in my now relatively old, but updated post.  However, for this post, I have chosen a frivolous song.

Claude Debussy (22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) wrote music based on this poem, but we also have a Dutch song, mixing French and Dutch.  Moreover, there is a site that features Charles singing a St Valentine’s song.  When he returned to France, Charles d’Orléans made Valentine’s Day known in courtly circles.

It seems Geoffrey Chaucer is the father of Valentine’s day.  He wrote that Valentine’s Day was the day on which birds mated.  This myth probably existed long before Chaucer, but he made it official, so to speak.  It is included in his Parlement of Fowles, 1382.

RELATED POSTS:

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“Geoffrey Chaucer”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/108024/Geoffrey-Chaucer>.
 

Histoire de cœur, by Michel Polnareff (born 1944)

 

Vase-with-Red-Poppies

© Micheline Walker
February 16, 2013
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Chaucer on Valentine’s Day & the Art of Antonio Canova

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Art, Love, Metamorphosis, Winged Creatures

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Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822)

More on Valentine’s Day

You will find below, among related articles, a post that tells about the origin of Saint Valentine’s Day.  It’s the final and rather amusing post in a short series of posts on St Valentine’s Day.  We’ve discussed the Lupercalia, pastorals, préciosité, pancakes, etc., and all these posts are related to Valentine’s Day.

For Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – 25 October 1400), the 14th of February was the day when birds mated.  It’s a lovely legend.  Othon III de Grandson devoted a third of his poems on stories surrounding St Valentine’s Day.

Moreover, Chaucer was familiar with the French courtly love tradition as he had translated, but not in its entirety, the Roman de la Rose, by Guillaume de Lorris, who wrote the first 4058 lines circa 1230.  The poem was completed by Jean de Meun who composed an additional 17,724 lines.  Chaucer’s Romaunt of the Rose is included in his Legend of Good Women, a poem.

The six tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn are also associated with Valentine’s day and Chaucer.  They were commissioned by Jean le Viste, described as a “powerful nobleman at the court of Charles VII” (22 February 1403 – 22 July 1461).  (See The Lady and the Unicorn, Wikipedia.)  The tapestries belong, in part, to the courtly love tradition.  Only a virgin could capture a unicorn, which suggests platonic love.  However, the horn of the unicorn is a phallic symbol.

As for cards, the first was written by a saint and martyr.  According to Britannica,  “[f]ormal messages, or valentines, appeared in the 1500s, and by the late 1700s commercially printed cards were being used.”[i] They became popular in the 19th century.

With respect to Charles d’Orléans, he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Agincourt, on 25 October 1415, and spent twenty-four years in England.  After he returned to France, he helped disseminate Othon III de Grandson’s Valentine stories in courtly circles.

We have several incunables (books printed between 1450 and 1501) combining the printed text and illuminations.  They cannot be shown in this blog if it is to posted on or near 14 February 2013.  Chaucer’s Tales of Canterbury is an incunable, printed by William Caxton, a fascinating gentleman.  But the Ellesmere Chaucer is a famous illuminated manuscript, housed in the Huntington Library, in San Marino, California.  (See Ellesmere Chaucer, Wikipedia.)

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[i] “Valentine’s Day”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>.

Antonio Canova – Musica Mozart
Sonata en Do mayor – K 303 (293c) Adagio Molto allegro
musicyarte 
Psyche_revived_Louvre_MR1777
© Micheline Walker
14 February 2013
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On Chaucer & St Valentine’s Day

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Literature, Love, Music

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Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manusctipt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer from the Ellesmere Manuscript
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geoffrey Chaucer and St Valentine’s Day.

As we know, Valentine’s Day was not a romantic day until Chaucer made it so. In The Parlement of Foules (1382), Chaucer wrote

For this was on seynt Volantynys day
Whan euery bryd comyth there to chese his make.

[“For this was Saint Valentine’s Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate.”]

The above illumination is from one of the 86 manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, the Ellesmere manuscript. Included among these 86 manuscripts is William Caxton’s printing of the Tales, one of the earliest printed books: 1478. Very early printed works, published between 1450 to 1501, are called incunables.

Johannes Gutenberg (1398 – February 3, 1468) is considered the first printer (c. 1439).  Early printers, printers of incunables, sometimes left blank spaces where enluminures or illuminations were inserted.

Historiated first letters are quite common in incunables.

Historiated Initial, click to enlarge

 John Dowland‘s “Goe from my window”
 
 

220px-Romaunt_rose_chaucer

© Micheline Walker
14 February 2012
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Valentine’s Day: Martyrs & Birds

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Literature, Love

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CUPID OR L'AMOUR MOUILLÉ, BY WILLIAM-ADOLPHE BOUGUEREAU (1825-1905)

Cupid or l’Amour mouillé, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) (Photo credit: Wikipaintings)

Valentine’s Day

Greek and Roman Antiquity
Lupercalia

Love has long been celebrated.  In ancient Greece, the marriage of Jupiter to Hera was commemorated between mid-January and mid-February.  As for the Romans, in mid-February, they held the festival of the Lupercalia.  According to Britannica, the Lupercalia was

[t]he festival, which celebrated the coming of spring, included fertility rites and the pairing off of women with men by lottery.[i]

At the end of the 5th century, Pope Gelasius I replaced the Lupercalia with a Christian feast, the “Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” to be celebrated on the 2nd of February.  It is said, however, that, in 496, the Pope issued a decree that made the 14th of February the feast of at least one saint named Valentine.  However, according to Britannica, “Valentine’s Day came to be celebrated as a day of romance from about the 14th century.”[ii]

Lupercalia was eventually replaced by Saint Valentine’s Day, celebrated on the 14th of February.  The 14th of February is no longer a feast day in the Catholic Church.  But it is a feast day in the Anglican Church.  Moreover, Ireland and France have relics of St Valentine, Valentine of Terni in Dublin and an anonymous St Valentine in France.

Saints and Martyrs

There is conflicting information concerning saints named Valentine.  It would be my opinion that the only St Valentine we can associate with Valentine’s Day is the saint who slipped his jailor’s daughter a note worded “From your Valentine.”

In French, Valentine’s Day is still called la Saint-Valentin, which suggests that there is a saint and martyr named Valentin.  In fact, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there may be three saints named Valentine:

  1. Valentine of Terni, the bishop of Interrama, now Terni, also a 3rd century martyr buried on the Via Flaminia,
  2. a Valentine who suffered in Africa with several companions and the
  3. Valentine who restored his jail keeper’s daughter’s sight and slipped her a note that read “From your Valentine,” the night before his martyrdom.
  4. If this Valentine is associated with Valentine’s Day, it is because of the note he slipped to his  daughter.  This saint would be Valentine of Rome, our St Valentine

Valentine’s Day Cards : Origin

Valentine of Rome, is mentioned, albeit inconspicuously, in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend.  Moreover, the Roman Martyrology, “the Catholic Church‘s official list of recognized saints,” gives only one Saint Valentine, the martyr who was executed and buried on the Via Flaminia and whose feast day is February 14th. (Saint Valentine, Wikipedia.)  This saint’s only link with St Valentine’s day is the note he slipped to his jailer’s daughter.  This note would be the origin of Valentine’s Day cards.

St Valentine was martyred about c. 270 CE, probably 269, by Roman emperor Claudius II Gothicus.[iii]  According to the emperor, married men were lesser soldiers.  This St Valentine could be Valentine of Rome.  But it could also be that this Valentine, Valentine of Rome, is the same person as Valentine of Terni, a priest and bishop also martyred in the 3rd century CE and buried on the Via Flaminia.  This view is not supported by the Encyclopædia Britannica.[iv]

However, as I mentioned above, if this saint is associated with Valentine’s Day, the note signed “From your Valentine” is the only link between a saint named Valentine and Valentine’s Day.  The note constitutes the required romantic element.

The Romantic Element

The Lady and the Unicorn
Chaucer: the day birds mate 

As mentioned above, Saint Valentine’s Day was not the feast of lovers (i.e. people in love) until a myth was born according to which birds mated on February the 14th.  This myth is probably quite ancient but it finds its relatively recent roots is Geoffrey Chaucer‘s (14th century) Parliament of Foules.  Othon III de Grandson (1340 and 1350 – 7 August 1397) [in French], a poet and captain at the court of England, spread the legend to the Latin world in the 14th century.  This legend is associated with the famous mille-fleurs (thousand flowers) tapestry called La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn), housed in the Cluny Museum in Paris.

N.B. The first version of the Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxton’s 1478 edition.  Caxton translated and printed The Golden Legend in 1483.

Dissemination

Birds mating on 14th February
Othon III de Granson
Charles d’Orléans

It would appear that Othon III de Grandson, our poet and captain, wrote a third of his poetry in praise of that tradition.  He wrote:

  • La Complainte de Saint Valentin (I & II), or Valentine’s Lament,
  • La Complaincte amoureuse de Sainct Valentin Gransson (The Love Lament of St Valentine Gransson),
  • Le Souhait de Saint Valentin (St Valentine’s Wish),
  • and Le Songe Saint Valentin (St Valentine’s Dream). (See Othon III de Grandson [in French], Wikipedia)

Knowledge of these texts was disseminated in courtly circles, the French court in particular, at the beginning of the 15th century, by Charles d’Orléans.  At some point, Othon’s Laments were forgotten, but St Valentine’s Day was revived in the 19th century.

In short, St Valentine’s Day is about

  1. a martyr who, the night before his martyrdom, slipped a note to the lady he had befriended, his jailor’s blind daughter, signing it “From your Valentine.”
  2. It is about a legend, found in Chaucer‘s Parliament of Foules, according to which birds mate on the 14th of February.
  3. It is associated with an allegorical tapestry: La Dame à la licorne.
  4. It is about Othon III de Grandson (FR, Wikipedia), a poet and a captain who devoted thirty percent of his poetry to the traditions surrounding St Valentine’s Day.
  5. It is also about courtly love and, specifically, Le Roman de la Rose, part of which was translated into English by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  6. Finally, it is about Charles d’Orléans who circulated the lore about St Valentine in courtly circles in France.

There is considerable information in Wikipedia’s entry of St Valentine’s Day. It was or has become a trans-cultural tradition.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Folk Art Valentine, 1875

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[i] “Valentine’s Day.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/858512/Valentines-Day>.

[ii] “Saint Valentine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622028/Saint-Valentine>.

[iii] “Claudius II Gothicus.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120521/Claudius-II-Gothicus>.

[iv] “Saint Valentine.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2013
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/622028/Saint-Valentine>.

 
Andreas Scholl sings Dowland‘s “Flow my Tears”
 
   
cupidangel
© Micheline Walker
14 February 2012
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