Love is a certain inborn suffering derived from the sight of and excessive meditation upon the beauty of the opposite sex, which causes each one to wish above all things the embraces of the other and by common desire to carry out all of love's precepts in the other's embrace.

Andreas Capellanus (Capellanus meaning "chaplain") was the 12th-century author of a treatise commonly known as De amore ("About Love") and often known in English somewhat misleadingly as The Art of Courtly Love though its realistic somewhat cynical tone suggests that it is in some measure an antidote to courtly love. Little is known of Andreas Capellanus's life but he is presumed to have been a courtier of Marie of Troyes and probably of French origin; he is sometimes known by a French translation of his name André le Chapelain.