SOURCE: “Boccaccio and Capellanus: Tradition and Innovation in Arcipreste de Talavera,” in Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Vol. 12, No. 2, May, 1978, pp.255-74.

In the following essay, Gerli outlines the indebtedness of Alfonso Martínez de Toledo's Arcipreste de Talavera to Capellanus's De Amore.

The principal sources of Arcipreste de Talavera have been identified through the diligence of Erich Von Richthofen.¹ However, the importance of the Corbacho, lies not in its literary and folkloric antecedents, but almost exclusively in the original tone, style, and artistry of Alfonso Martínez de Toledo. For over thirty years the German scholar's erudite study has been considered the definitive statement on the work, rather than as it should be, the learned basis upon which new investigations be carried out. Von Richthofen thoroughly established the intellectual and artistic inheritance of Arcipreste de Talavera, describing its place in the didactic literary tradition of the Middle...