Garden Spaces and Textual Materialities: The Exorcistic Prelude to the Razón de amor

Abstract (Lang: Spanish):

The study examines the relationship between the thirteenth-century poem known as the Razón de amor con los denuestos del agua y vino and an exorcistic, Latin prayer that immediately precedes this text in the only surviving manuscript. I will show how the prayer relates to and even affects the outcome of the love poem set in an idyllic garden. We will see how it sheds light on notions of outer and inner spaces of fertility and desolation in the medieval imaginary, pointing to natural and supernatural settings that are threatened by sin and purified by the Church. Exorcizing the violated garden of Ecclesia, the prayer has the effect of purifying and consecrating its enchanted space, and thereby protecting against the threat of a punishing storm. In this way, the Latin text can be understood as an efficacious presence in the codex, as well as a source of meaning prefiguring imagery from the poetic work that it precedes.