Master Richard's Bestiary of Love and Response, by Richard de Fournival

Master Richard's Bestiary of Love and Response, by Richard de Fournival, illustrated by Barry Moser. 1986 hardcover. 83 pages, very nice condition.

A classic French work that discuss the relationship between men and women, including social and theological traditions. In the middle of the thirteenth century, Richard de Fournival, a French cleric, scholar and surgeon, wrote the Bestiaire d’amour, the Bestiary of love. This fusion of courtly love literature and Bestiary allegorical “natural history” was supposedly written to win the favor of an unnamed woman who Richard was in love with, but who was resisting his advances. Courtly love literature was common in thirteenth century Europe, as was the Bestiary, but never before has the two been combined. The result is a strange blend of the two genres, with the standard Bestiary stories co-opted to serve the interests of courtly love, and the usual allegories bent to serve Richard’s needs. The Bestiaire is followed by a response, supposedly from the woman Richard was writing to. Whether the response was written by Richard’s unattainable love, or by a woman at all, is not known and is still debated; Jeanette Beer says “Its author was a woman of exceptional ability who could reason with cogency and argue with style; her philosophical and theological background differed markedly from Master Richard’s; and her feminist defense of woman may have been a personal response directed specifically against Richard de Fournival.” Whether or not this is so, the response to Richard’s protestations of love was scathing. This beautifully illustrated translation of Richard de Fournival's Bestiary of Love makes this medieval examination of the nature of love accessible to students and the general reader. Barry Moser’s artwork is impeccable.