The Arts of Friendship: The Idealization of Friendship in Medieval and Early Renaissance Literature (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History) (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History)

'The Arts of Friendship' focusses on literary representations of three categories of ideal friendship — Christian, chivalric, and humanistic — and the writers' strategies of establishing the ethical authority of their contemporary friends and codes on a par with antiquity's amicitia perfecta. The study identifies the extent to which writers acknowledged women as perfect friends. The selected texts under examination include, among others, hagiographies, works of Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, 'The Quest of the Holy Grail', Thomas' 'Tristan', the 'Prose Lancelot', 'Ami and Amile', the 'Decameron', and L. B. Alberti's 'Dell'amicizia'. Literary comparatists and historians, ethical historians, and students of rhetoric will find of interest the comparative study of the rhetorical topos of perfect friendship, the varied ethical criteria inherent there, and the writers' strategies for representing and authorizing an idea.

The Arts of Friendship focusses on literary representations of three categories of ideal friendship — Christian, chivalric, and humanistic — and the writers' strategies of establishing the ethical authority of their contemporary friends and codes on a par with antiquity's amicitia perfecta. The study identifies the extent to which writers acknowledged women as perfect friends.
The selected texts under examination include, among others, hagiographies, works of Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, The Quest of the Holy Grail, Thomas' Tristan, the Prose Lancelot, Ami and Amile, the Decameron, and L.B. Alberti's Dell'amicizia.
Literary comparatists and historians, ethical historians, and students of rhetoric will find of interest the comparative study of the rhetorical topos of perfect friendship, the varied ethical criteria inherent there, and the writers' strategies for representing and authorizing an idea.

The study focusses on literary representations of three categories of ideal friendship - Christian, chivalric, and humanistic - and the writers' strategies of establishing the ethical authority of their contemporary friends and codes on a par with antiquity's amicitia perfecta. The study identifies the extent to which writers acknowledged women as perfect friends. The selected texts under examination include, among others, hagiographies, works of Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, The Quest of the Holy Grail, Thomas' Tristan, the Prose Lancelot, Ami and Amile, the Decameron, and L.B. Alberti's Dell' amicizia . Literary comparatists and historians, ethical historians, and students of rhetoric will find of interest the comparative study of the rhetorical topos of perfect friendship, the varied ethical criteria inherent there, and the writers' strategies for representing and authorizing an idea. 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 This comparative study focuses on literary representations in selected texts of three categories of ideal friendship — Christian, chivalric, and humanistic — and the writers' strategies for establishing the ethical authority of their model friends on a par with antiquity's amici perfecti.