‘Iocus amoris’: the Poetry of Baudri of Bourgueil and the Formation of the Ovidian Subculture

Abstract

The poetry of Baudri, Abbot of Bourgueil (ca. 1078–1107) and Archbishop of Dol (1107–1130), has attracted little critical attention. As is the case with other figures of the ‘Loire School’ or ‘School of Angers’ such as Marbod of Angers or even Hildebert of Le Mans, Baudri of Bourgueil remains largely unknown outside of a small circle of specialists. Yet his voluminous poetic production, most of which was completed by around 1100, should be particularly attractive for students of High Medieval culture, both Latin and vernacular, since literary and amatory concerns form its dominant topics. His plea for unrestrained reading, his decriminalization of desire, his mastery of Ovid, his radical treatment of friendship, his allegorization of myth, his sense of the individual, his defense of poetry — all these are especially significant at such an early date. In this paper, I propose to survey the poetry and assess its overall achievement in order to facilitate future research on more restricted and detailed levels.