Abstract

After a quick survey of the rules about the art of kissing in the courtly love tradition and in the French artes amandi of the Middle Ages, this paper focuses on the moral rules about the kiss diffused in the books by the grey friar Francesc Eiximenis (1327-1409). The discussion about the kiss in chapter 176 of the Tirant lo Blanc –a me­dieval chivalric romance written by Joanot Martorell between 1460 and 1468– is approached through the contrast between Eiximenis' moral rules and the profan rules. As a result of this analysis a better understanding of the ideas and attitudes of the romance heroes is achieved.

Abstract

A comparative analysis of variants introduced in the Valencia edition of «Spill de la vida religiosa» (1529) in contrast to the Barcelona edition (1515), with recourse to analogous data from reprints of Hull or Eiximenis and from the «Regles» attributed to Fenollar-Pau. The authors conclude that the differences are superficial and reveal an eagerness to Valencianize, or rather modernize, which cannot be regarded, in any case, as symptom of language breaking up.