ABSTRACT
The Cort d’Amor (incipit: [S]einor} vos que volez la flor) is preserved solely in Occitan Chansonnier N, now MS M .819 in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City.1 The work is anonymous and makes no direct reference to contemporary events or figures which might give clues as to when it was written. Nor are any direct allusions to this poem to be found in any other contemporary or near-contem porary writing. The manuscript itself is therefore the first point of reference in any attempt to date the text. Whilst the more recent history o f Chansonnier N has been firmly established,2 little is known of its history prior to 1816 apart from the fact that it belonged to the Gonzagas, Dukes o f Mantua, between 1384 and the early sixteenth century at least. It came into their possession upon the execution of Andrea Painelli, who had inherited the manuscript from his father, Giacomino. The presence of the act granting Giacomino Painelli and his descendants citizenship of Mantua, dated 1354, at folio 53v, possibly led some scholars to date the entire manuscript as fourteenthcentury.3 However, Giuseppe Frasso, albeit identifying the script as fourteenth-century, points out that in all probability Giacomino Painelli had the act inserted into his favourite manuscript.4
