Why do you call Her divine?: the religion of love in the love poetry of the Cancionero de Baena

Abstract

The Cancionero de Baena (CB) is a songbook, compiled by Juan Alfonso de Baena toward 1430 and likely commissioned by king Juan II of Castile. Approximately 25% of the included poems deal with love as a subject-matter. It is believed that the treatment of love in CB follows on the thematic and formal footsteps of amour courtois (courtly love). Within the amour courtois-code, the religio amoris plays a crucial role. The religio amoris (religion of love) consists of the assimilation of erotic love to religious faith. It includes a handful of motifs, such as the deification of the Lady (puella divina or puella angelicata), the representation of love as Faith, the belief in god Love (Amor), and the consideration of bad behavior by the lover as a sin. In this paper, the construction of love as a religion in the CB is surveyed and discussed. The religion of Love is not only a feature of amour courtois but obeys a threefold motivation: neuropsychological, historical, and literary. In the literary field, the topos goes back to Classical literature and especially to Latin love elegy and Ovid. Without paying attention to this cultural background, it is not feasible to assess the structure, form, and function of this thematic universe in the CB and in the cultural milieu of the 15^th century.