The Upper and Lower Conceptual Limits of Fin’Amor

“Fin’amor coincides with modern notions of romantic love only to a degree. At the root of both medieval and modern romantic sentiments lies sexual attraction between man and woman. The modern reader finds nothing hard to understand in Bernart de Ventadorn’s hope that his lady might

“Receive me in that place
She lies in, to embrace
And press against me, tight,
Her, body smooth and white.

The Comtessa de Dia expresses much the same longing for her “naked knight.” While most troubadours sublimate love to some extent, Eros never completely loses his vitals. When love has been spiritualized to the degree of, say, Dante’s feelings for Beatrice, who guided him toward heaven, we have transcended the limits of fin’amor and risen into the realm of a more purely religious emotion.”(Lark in the Morning: The Verses of the Troubadours By Robert Kehew – pages from introduction)