In spite of their widely disparate uses, Marian prayers and courtly love songs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance often show a stylistic similarity. This book examines the convergence of these two styles in polyphonic music and its broader poetic, artistic, and devotional context from c.1200-c.1500. The flower of paradise is a very accessible study that is of undoubted relevance to anyone with an interest in medieval and Renaissance music, culture or liturgy.