A Further Look at Secular and Sacred lyric in the early Consistory: Lo Cocir de la Mort and La Contemplatio de la Crotz

The revised version of the 'Leys d’amors' (Toulouse, 1356) includes a long devotional poem, 'La Contemplatio de la Crotz', and omits an equally long, secular, rather satirical poem about the fear of Death, 'Lo Cocir de la Mort'. The 'Contemplatio' is out of place in Consistory poetry: a dolorist narrative of the Passion that was intended to include a cycle of illustrations. It is linked to liturgical and meditative texts such as the 'Planctus Mariae', which are attested in medieval Toulouse. Comparing the two versions of the 'Leys d'Amors' in relation to the 'Contemplatio' highlights the complex relationship between the early Consistory and the mendicant orders.