The studies show the extent to which love poems/songs by well-known medieval authors display links with supra-individual discourse conventions of the age in which they materialized. Central reference is made to Old Occitan troubadour songs of the 12th and early 13th centuries and Old Italian texts from the 13th and 14th centuries (notably by Giacomo di Lentini, Dante, and Petrarch). The comparison traces the gradual emergence of a lyrical 'I' reflecting the knowledge of the age and thus in a position to inquire into its own role. At all points in this development, poetry is seen to engage vigorously with the central epistemes of the dominant discourse forms, notably theology and philosophy.