Reason for love as a secret joke

Abstract

Ever since the manuscript of the poem known as Razon de amor was found, the problem of the unity of its two parts has puzzled the critics. In this article I propose that the coherence of the text is not to be found in the relationship between the topics but in the humoristic purposes of the verses. I hold that Razón de amor is a joke that deals with the sexual and spiritual anxieties of the Aragonese clerics who read it and that its condition of an object designed to provoke laughter explains the thematic inconsistencies of this famous piece of poetry.