Abstract
<p>This new history of love in the Western world examines how this emotion, which seems so self-evident to us today, has been understood and experienced differently since Roman antiquity. Numerous quotations illustrate the spectrum of erotic, parental, and religious love, demonstrating that a significant change did not occur until the High Middle Ages. In both secular and religious culture, concepts that had been absent from all sources since the end of antiquity were being formulated again. These ideas appeared in courtly love poetry and novels, occupying all future generations. While they varied during the Renaissance, Baroque and Romantic periods, they remain central to our view of the world and humanity to this day. Peter Dinzelbacher is a retired professor at the University of Vienna. He received his doctorate in 1973, habilitated in 1978, and taught in Germany, Austria, Italy, and Denmark. He is the author of numerous books and essays, particularly on the mentality, religiosity, and art of the Middle Ages.</p>