History 342                                                                             Professor Wertheimer

Discussion Questions for Tuesday, February 17

Material to be covered: Tierney section 53, 56, 58

1).  Analyze the troubadour and courtly love literature in your reader (sections 53 and 56).  What is this literature concerned with?  How does it reflect the themes of the twelfth-century renaissance?

2).  In the readings from Andreas Capellanus (pp. 187 – 188), how is love described?  How does the “appropriate” expression of love vary in these readings, and why?  How does the depiction of marriage in this reading contrast to that in Gratian?

3).  Tierney section 58.  As you discuss this reading, first consider what it reflects about medieval marriage in practice.  Are the ideas of free consent to marriage upheld?  Next, look at the places marriage and virginity held in the medieval moral hierarchy.  What moral value did marriage have?  What moral value did virginity have?