It has been supposed to have been written in 1185 at the request of Marie de Champagne, daughter of King Louis VII of France and of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
John Jay Parry, who edited De Amore, has described it as "one of those capital works which reflect the thought of a great epoch, which explains the secret of a civilization."
It may be viewed as didactic, mocking, or merely descriptive; in any event it preserves the attitudes and practices that were the foundation of a long and significant tradition in Western literature.
The basic conception of Capellanus is that courtly love ennobles both the lover and the beloved, provided that certain codes of behaviour are respected.
Rather, the most ennobling love is generally secret and extremely difficult to obtain, serving as a means for inspiring men to great deeds.
For example, women are described as being completely untrustworthy ("everything a woman says is said with the intention of deceiving"), insanely greedy and willing to do anything for food, weak-minded and easily swayed by false reasoning, "slanderers filled with envy and hate," drunkards, loud-mouthed and gossipy, unfaithful in love, disobedient, vain and tortured by envy of all other women's beauty, "even her daughter's."
Though some social practices acceptable during the Middle Ages may be reflected in Capellanus' work, it cannot be clearly demonstrated to be a reliable source on the common medieval attitude to "courtly love.
Attractive peasant girls are to be shunned or, failing this, "embraced by force": In a similar vein, Andreas describes nuns as easy to seduce, although he condemns anyone who does so as a "disgusting animal."