The Book of Good Love, considered to be one of the masterpieces of Spanish poetry, is a semi-biographical account of romantic adventures by Juan Ruiz, the Archpriest of Hita, the earliest version of which dates from 1330; the author completed it with revisions and expansions in 1343. The work is considered as the best piece in the medieval genre known as mester de clerecía. The Book begins with prayers and a guide as to how to read the work, followed by stories each containing a moral and often comical tale. The book contains a heterogeneous collection of diverse materials united around a supposed autobiographical narrative of the author's own love affairs, which is represented in one part of the book by the episodic character of don Melón de la Huerta. In it, all the layers of Spanish low-medieval society are represented through their lovers. In the course of the main plot, fables and apologists are interspersed, constituting a collection of exempla. There are also allegories, morals, sermons, songs by the blind and schoolchildren of the Goliardesque type. Profane lyrical compositions are also collected alongside other religious ones, such as hymns and joys to the Virgin or Christ. The narrative materials are based on the parody of the medieval elegiac comedies in Latin pseudo-ovidian school environment, such as De vetula and Pamphilus, in which the author is the protagonist of love adventures that alternate with poems linked to them. Pamphilus is also mentioned in the Book of Good Love as the basis for the episode of Don Melón and Doña Endrina. In addition to material derived from Ovid's Ars amandi, the liturgy of the canonical hours or the chants of deeds is also parodied, as in the battle of Don Carnal with Doña Laresma. Other genres that can be found in the Book are the plantos, like the fact to the death of Trotaconventos, a character that constitutes the clearest precedent of La Celestina or the satires, like those directed against the lady girls or the equalizing power of money; the fables, of the esoteric medieval tradition or pedagogical manuals, like the Facetus, that considers the loving education as part of the human learning. Although Arab sources have been proposed, current criticism is inclined to consider that The Book of Good Love descends from medieval Latin clerical literature.
Manuscripts
There are three manuscripts of the Book of Good Love, none of them complete, whose divergences made Ramón Menéndez Pidal think that they could respond to two different redactions made by the author in different moments of his life:
Manuscript "S" because it came from Salamanca; specifically from the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolomé. It was once in the Royal Library of Madrid and is now in the Library of the University of Salamanca. Because of its handwriting, it is from the beginning of the 15th century and is the most complete, as it incorporates additions that are not in the other two. The colophon is attributed to Alonso de Paradinas.
Manuscript "G", so called because it belonged in his time to Benito Martínez Gayoso. Today it is in the Library of the Royal Spanish Academy. It is dated at the end of the 15th century.
Manuscript "T", so called because it belonged to the Cathedral of Toledo. Today guarded in the National Library of Spain. It is considered to have been written at the end of the 14th century.
Theme and structure
The Book of Good Love is a varied and extensive composition of 1728 stanzas, centering on the fictitious autobiography of Juan Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita. Today three manuscripts of the work survive: the Toledo and Gayoso manuscripts originating from the fourteenth century, and the Salamanca manuscript copied at the start of the fifteenth century by Alonso de Paradinas. All three manuscripts have various pages missing, which prevents a complete reading of the book, and each manuscript varies extensively from each other due to the diversions of the authors. The work most commonly read today was suggested by Ramón Menéndez Pidal in 1898 based on sections from all three manuscripts. The book is famous for its variety of:
The introduction, where the author explains how the book should be interpreted.
A fictitious autobiography of the author in which he tells us of his relationships with women of different origin and social status: a nun, a Moor, a housewife he spied praying, a baker, a noble woman and several mountain women, often helped by another woman named Urraca, better known as Trotaconventos
Several examples which serve as moral education at the end of each episode.
The dispute between the author and Love, in which he accuses Love of being the cause of the seven mortal sins
The tale of the love of Mr. Melon and Mrs. Endrina, an adaptation of the medieval elegiac comedyPamphilus de amore.
A number of profane songs, such as that upon the death of "Trotaconventos"
Interpretation
The title The Book of Good Love is inferred from the text, and who or what Good Love may be is not revealed by the author. The Book of Good Love explains how men must be careful about Love that can be Good or Foolish. The Good Love is God's one and is preferred to the Foolish love which only gives men sins. Juan Ruiz gives the reader a lot of examples to explain his theory and avoid Foolish love in name of Good one.
