Abstract

Despite the plethora of literary studies dedicated to the cantigas de amigo, far less attention has been devoted to examine the multi-layered meanings associated with the definitions of friendship which were embodied and promoted by these Galician-Portuguese lyrics, and the extent to which such literary constructions reflected contemporary socio-political and cultural structures. An overview of thirteenth-century discourses (in Foucault’s terms: shared cultural norms with strong exemplary and disciplining functions), ideas and representations of friendship would help to answer and contextualise some important questions. What did amigo/a mean in the medieval Iberian context and to what extent did those ideas conform to models shared by other Western European literary, philosophical and historical traditions? Were concepts of love and friendship mutually exclusive? How useful are sources like the cantigas de amigo to navigate and understand the multiple implications of such intertwined relationships? Friendship as a powerful social bond, bridging individual ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres of action and interaction, as well as that of entire communities, is an extremely useful lens through which we can examine cultural, social and political networks of power, authority and legitimacy. The study of friendship helps to understand how these links contributed to shape individual and collective ‘identities’ in different historical contexts, and how individuals conceived and experienced interpersonal interactions, some of which were culturally recognized as emotionally charged. It is also important to examine the extent to which individuals presented themselves as part of intersecting socio-political, economic, religious and intellectual networks, which were frequently legitimised through the language of friendship. The variety of approaches and methodologies provided by the history of emotions, cultural history and the history of gender, alongside the study of political, diplomatic and religious history, encourages an in-depth analysis of the complex interplay between different typologies of social interactions, which reveal patterns of both change and continuity in the development of models and modes of behavior which have been always integral to both political life and thought, but also to human spiritual and emotional wellbeing.