Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-241) and index.

Preliminary Material -- Chapter One: The Pre-Christian Polemic About The Theory And Praxis Of Friendship -- Chapter Two: Ideals Of Christian Friendships In The Twelfth And Thirteenth Centuries: Amicitia Dei, Fraternal Charity, And The Problem Of Spiritual Friendship And Love -- Chapter Three: Sweeter Than Woman's Love Praise Of Chivalric Friendship In Three Twelfth And Thirteenth-Century French Fictions: Thomas' Tristan, The Prose Lancelot, And Ami And Amile -- Chapter Four: Models Of Authority In The New Age: Boccaccio, Laurent De Premierfait, And Leon Βattista Alberti -- Appendix A: A Note On Didactic Works And Translations Of The Thirteenth Century -- Appendix Β: Laurent De Premierfait's Prefaces To His Translation Of Cicero's Laelius -- Select Bibliography -- Index.

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The Arts of Friendship focusses on literary representations of three categories of ideal friendship — Christian, chivalric, and humanistic — and the writers' strategies of establishing the ethical authority of their contemporary friends and codes on a par with antiquity's amicitia perfecta . The study identifies the extent to which writers acknowledged women as perfect friends. The selected texts under examination include, among others, hagiographies, works of Bernard of Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, The Quest of the Holy Grail , Thomas' Tristan , the Prose Lancelot , Ami and Amile , the Decameron , and L.B. Alberti's Dell'amicizia . Literary comparatists and historians, ethical historians, and students of rhetoric will find of interest the comparative study of the rhetorical topos of perfect friendship, the varied ethical criteria inherent there, and the writers' strategies for representing and authorizing an idea.