The narrative materials are based on the parody of medieval elegiac comedies in Latin from a pseudo-Ovidian school setting, such as De vetula and Pamphilus, in which the author is the protagonist of amorous adventures that alternate with poems related to him or her.

In addition to materials derived from Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, it also parodies the liturgy of the canonical hours or epics and in combat of Carnival ("Don Carnal") and Lent ("Doña Cuaresma").

Other genres that can be found in the Book are planhz, such as Trotaconventos' death, a character that constitutes the clearest precedent for La Celestina or satires, such as those directed against female owners or the equalizing power of money; or fables, from the medieval aesopic tradition or pedagogical manuals, such as Facetus, which considers romantic education as part of human learning.

Although Arabic sources have been proposed, current criticism favors the belief that The Book of Good Love descends from medieval clerical Latin literature.

Menéndez Pelayo was the first to point out the Goliardic character of the work, although he denied that there was any attack against dogmas or insurrection against authority, which others later confirmed to be an attitude characteristic of Goliardish poetry.

Also during the battle between Don Carnal and Doña Cuaresma he travels to the “aljama” or town hall of Toledo, where the butchers and rabbis invite him to spend a "good day."

María Rosa Lida de Malkiel wanted to see the influence of the genre of narrative in rhymed prose, the maqāmat, cultivated by several peninsular authors in Arabic and Hebrew during the XII-XIV centuries.

The book also contains a passage in which a Goliardish-type protest is presented against the position of Gil de Albornoz who intended to extend the papal doctrine of compulsory celibacy to his diocese.