Façonner sa dame: amour et idolâtrie

The 'lady as idol' is a cliche of troubadour poetry, and of courtly love in general. Moving beyond the psychoanalytical theories of desire that have informed troubadour studies in the past few decades, this article examines a selection of poems by the troubadour Jausbert de Poicibot, as well as their well-known illustrations in one 14th-c. manuscript, in order to explore how the complex medieval understanding of idolatry interacted with that of "fin'amor".