Important to the study of sources and analogues to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are the three moral treatises written by Albertano of Brescia in the mid-thirteenth century. His Liber Consolationis et Consilii has enjoyed renown as grandparent to the Tale of Melibee; glosses to the De Doctrina Loquendi et Tracendi and the De Amore et Dilectione Dei et Proximi et Aliarum Rerum et de Forma Vitae have been found in the Manciple's Tale, the Merchant's Tale, and in Troilus and Criseyde. The extent to which Chaucer may have been familiar with the De Amore is still uncertain. Thor Sundby edited the Liber Consolationis in 1873 and the Doctrina Loquendi et Tacendi in 1884; these so far have been the only modern editions available of Albertano's works. The De Amore, in contrast, has never been edited. I present an edition of the text of this treatise as it appears in University of Pennsylvania Latin MS 107, and it is intended to form a basis for further research into Chaucerian sources.
Albertano's three treatises were widely read in the Middle Ages, as is indicated by the promulgation of manuscripts containing these works. The treatises are works of practical direction, and abound with quotations and exempla for right living from a wide variety of classical, Biblical, and medieval sources. The De Amore, the first and longest of the three, was dedicated to Albertano's eldest son in 1238; the Liber Consolationis was presented to another son in 1245, and the Doctrina Loquendi et Tacendi was presented to a third son in 1246. The number and variety of authorities cited by Albertano in the De Amore suggest that he drew his material from one or more compendia or florilegia of conventional wisdom; these are adapted to the framework of a book of instruction for his son. The text of the De Amore is divided into four books, each of which is subdivided into a number of chapters. In the first book, Albertano describes how to acquire and retain the love of God; the second discusses different kinds of human love. Albertano turns in the third book to a discussion of material goods, and in the fourth book to instruction in the acquisition of the arts and virtues.
This edition of Albertano's De Amore is based upon a single manuscript, so my effort has been to produce a readable rather than a critical text. The edition reproduces the text of the manuscript, but it silently expands abbreviations and introduces modern punctuation and paragraph divisions. Expunctions and cancellations of the manuscript are not noted; additions, whether interlinear or marginal, are silently taken into the text. The sources consulted by Albertano in compiling his treatise are identified, whenever possible, in footnotes on each page of text. Although the manuscript presents a reasonably clear text of the De Amore, it is by no means free from error or scribal idiosyncrasy. Scribal errors have been allowed to stand, but I have tried, whenever possible, to make the text comprehensible by suggesting a more sensible reading in square brackets following the questionable reading. Likewise, letters or words evidently omitted by the scribe are supplied in square brackets. The spelling of the manuscript has also been faithfully preserved.
This pioneer edition of the De Amore, which represents the readings of only one manuscript, University of Pennsylvania Latin MS 107, is intended as the foundation for a critical edition of Albertano's treatise, which will collate the readings of all extant manuscripts. To this end, I include a list of these manuscripts in an appendix to this edition.