Courtly Culture: Literature and Society in the High Middle Ages Joachim Bumke
Translated from the German by Thomas Dunlap A classic study of the rise and fall of Medieval courtly culture, now available in paperback. Bumke overlooks no detail in this exhaustive and definitive study, in which he challenges the myth that the idealised patterns of behaviour in courtly literature, in particular the notion of courtly love, are an accurate reflection of the reality of aristocratic life.