SOURCE: Myers, Oliver T. “Symmetry of Form in the Libro de buen amor.” Philological Quarterly 51, no. 1 (January 1972): 74-84.

In the following essay, Myers presents a structural analysis of The Book of Good Love.

The aim of this paper is to propose a tentative hypothesis for an outline of the Libro de buen amor, attempting to identify the larger structural units of the work and demonstrate their functions and interrelations.¹

One may find himself in ready agreement with most current interpretations of the Libro, as inconsistent or contradictory as they may be, largely because of the careful selection by critics of their supporting evidence. The Libro de buen amor is, as it were, simultaneously didactic, allegorical, satirical, cynical, deeply religious, anti-clerical, constructed with great art, yet apparently thrown together haphazardly, imbued with the spirit of life, but preoccupied with death. Great attention has been given to the author's presumed...