Paolo Santangelo TWO KEY TREATISES ON LOVE AND THEIR DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO THE CONCEPT OF LOVE: QINGSHI LEILÜE 情史類略 情史類略 情史類略 情史類略 AND DE AMORE * In the history of mentality or anthropological history the role of emotions is overwhelming. I am going to examine the values attributed to the concept of “love” comparing two classics of world literature, the Qingshi leilüe, abridged into Qingshi, “History of Love” (the full title being “The History of Love Categorization Sketch”), 1 and the well known mediaeval treatise in Europe, the “Book of the Art of Loving Nobly and the Reprobation of Dis- honourable Love” [Liber de arte honeste amandi et reprobatione inhonesti amoris by André Le Chapelain (Andreas Capellanus, 1150-1220) of about 1185, hereinafter referred to as De amore]. 2 It is needless to say that here we use the term “love” in a broad way: it is itself a generalization in Western culture, that we arbitrarily apply also to an- * An earlier version of this paper has been presented in occasion of the commemoration of Prof. Jaroslav Prusek, in Charles University, October 19, 1996. Later on, this topic has been de- veloped in the ambit of my research on emotions in China, with the contribution of the CCK foundation. 1 I do not intend to give a presentation of this work, which has already been studied by other scholars, from Patrick Hanan to Hua-yuan Mowry. Cf. P. Hanan, 1973; Hua-yuan Li Mowry, 1983. However the translation of “love” for qing 情 may appear reductive; this meaning in its widest sense is the most fitting in this case. 2 Andreas Capellanus, French writer on the art of courtly love, best known for his three- volume treatise. He is thought to have been a chaplain at the court of Marie, Countess of Cham- pagne, daughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine. He wrote his book on love at Marie's request. For the original latin text see E. Trojel 1892 (repr. München, 1972), and the Italian version edited by Salvatore Battaglia, n.d.. See also Andrea Cappellano 1992.