While St. Valentine in the Queen Mary Psalter might be considered to represent love for his fellow man, the concept of courtly love found in the poetry of the thirteenth-century troubadours would celebrate an altogether more worldly representation. While some of these representations of courtly love might be wholly innocent, such as the presentation verses to a lover depicted in the first image, others were much more carnal. In the Roman de la Rose an allegorical world is created wherein the narrator, commonly known as the Lover, attempts to pick the Rose, thus achieving his desire and giving us a lasting connection between flowers and virginity to this day.

The book is written in two parts. The first, written by Guillaume de Lorris, begins with the Lover discovering a walled garden. He gains entrance thanks to the aid of a beautiful woman, and meets a number of dancers who represent allegorical virtues such as Beauty, Generousity, and Diversion. They lead him on a tour of the garden, which eventually ends at a beautiful bed of roses near the Fountain of Love. Overwhelmed with desire to pick a particular rose, the Lover is lectured by Love on how to gain his desire and is aided in his quest by figures such as Warm Welcome, Friend, Honesty, Pity, and Venus. He encounters Danger, Slander, and Fear, overcomes Chastity, and gains a kiss from the Rose.

In the second part, written by Jean de Meun and which these images illustrate part of, Jealousy imprisons the Rose along with Warm Welcome in a castle (seen in the first of these two images, f. 39r of Harley 4425). The Lover in attempting to reclaim her is forced to again battle a number of allegorical figures – and readers are forced to deal with long digressive and misogynistic lectures by figures such as Reason. Ultimately, the Lover calls upon an army to besiege Jealousy’s castle, and the particular image from Douce 195 (f. 152v) presents the culmination of that battle, with Venus setting the castle of Jealousy aflame. The negative allegorical figures are escaping the castle, and in the right hand corner the Lover appears to be reconciling with the Rose.

Chaucer wrote a translation of this poem, of which we have only a fragment, and similar allegorical figures appear in several of his dream vision poems, particularly in the prologue of the Legend of Good Women, where a daisy figures prominently as the representation of the faithful Alceste and several of the allegorical figures from the Roman de la Rose are mentioned. Furthermore, part of the explanation given in the poem for Chaucer’s necessity in writing this poem is because he “hast translated the Romaunce of the Rose”, considered to be a “heresye” against the law of the god of Love (l. 329-330). Interestingly, the “Parlement of Foules” is presented as an example of how Chaucer has assisted Love, and serves as a justification for why the writing of the Legend of Good Women, rather than a more serious punishment, is required of him (l. 415-423).

King’s 322, from which the first image is drawn, is an Italian manuscript of the mid fifteenth century and contains a series of love sonnets written for a Mirabel Zucharia or Zucharina, presumably the woman depicted in the image. Harley 4425, from which the second image is drawn, is a late fifteenth century Netherlandish manuscript in French containing four large miniatures, of which this is the final one. It was originally commissioned for Engelbert II, count of Nassau and Vianden. Bodleian Douce 195, from which the third image is drawn, is richly illustrated with one hundred and twenty five miniatures. Originally produced in France, it was owned by Louise of Savoy, the wife of Charles of Orléans and mother of the French king Francis I.