Which 1936 book by C.S. Lewis studied medieval and Renaissance allegory?

C.S. Lewis’s 1936 book studying medieval and Renaissance allegory was The Allegory of Love. The work examines representations of love in Western literature from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.

Lewis discusses courtly love and analyzes major texts and authors, including works associated with Ovid, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante, and Edmund Spenser. His approach combines close literary reading with a broad account of how ideas about love changed across periods.

The book helped establish Lewis’s reputation as a literary scholar before his popular fiction and apologetics became dominant parts of his public identity. Its title can cause confusion because Lewis later wrote The Four Loves, a different book published in 1960. The Allegory of Love is a work of literary history and criticism, not a general guide to personal relationships.