For some of us, Valentine’s Day conjures up images of candy hearts, greeting cards, and red roses. As someone who has spent a large portion of their life researching and writing about hearts, Valentine's Day always makes me think about hearts in visual art and the origins of our associations of hearts with romantic love. It was not always the case that the heart was connected to ideas about love and romance; in fact, for a very long time and in many different cultures, the heart had associations with memory, knowledge, and even writing.
The history of hearts in art offers fascinating deep dives into so many topics and themes, among them science and anatomy, theology, the history of the body, print technology, and cultural entanglements.
Heart-shaped books
In this short post, I want to examine one of my favorite heart-shaped objects: heart-shaped books. During the Middle Ages in parts of Europe, heart-shaped books (and really hearts more generally) were deeply tied to ideas about love, memory, and the soul.
How so? Let's take a look.
Our focus: Chansonnier cordiforme de Montchenu
One specific example of a heart-shaped book is known as the Chansonnier cordiforme de Montchenu, today held in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It has 72 folios made of parchment (animal skin) edged with gold. This gorgeous 15th-century book from France is covered in red velvet, and inside are love songs and poems in French and Italian. It also has painted images connected to the theme of love, including one page showing Cupid shooting arrows into a woman's heart and another of a couple walking through a richly decorated room.
Side note: The French word chansonnier tells us this is a song book (coming from chanson, song) and cordiforme means heart-shaped.
The Medieval Heart: More Than Just an Organ
In the Middle Ages, the heart wasn’t viewed as simply a muscle pumping blood through someone's body. By the 15th century, the heart was a symbol of both earthly and divine love, blurring the lines between romantic desire and spiritual devotion. Reading aloud from the book or singing the songs contained within it was considered a way of offering up your heart.
But it was also more than just a symbol; it was believed to be the seat of the soul, emotions, and even memory. The idea that the soul resided in the heart was not unique to this place or time; many cultures worldwide had this belief, including the ancient Egyptians. By the Middle Ages across Europe, because of the belief that the heart housed the soul, this vital organ was believed to be the most important in the human body.
Memories on the heart
People also thought memories were physically impressed upon the heart, which is where we get the expression "to memorize something by heart." Many people believed the heart was like a wax tablet and things you saw or witnessed were imprinted on the heart, thereby forming your memories. Numerous authors describe the process of writing on one's heart. There is more that I can say here, and will in other essays, but the takeaway is that hearts were impressionable and connected to a person's very identity because they housed the soul and memories.
So, in a way, a heart-shaped book wasn’t just a cute object—it symbolized knowledge and remembrance.
This connection between the heart and knowledge wasn’t accidental. In medieval Christian thought, the heart was often associated with divine wisdom and love. It’s no surprise, then, that hearts became a metaphor not only for romantic love but also for spiritual love.
Devotional books
Heart-shaped books sometimes functioned as Christian devotional books without music. A painting by the Master of the View of Saint Gudula from about 1480 shows a heart-shaped devotional book being held by a Catholic devotee. On the left side of the painting, in the background, we see a man kneeling before an altar inside a Christian church, at which a priest holds up a wafer (the eucharistic host) above the altar in front of an altarpiece. Here, the artist is drawing connections to everything we've been discussing about the heart's role in a person's life and its associations with divine love—in this case, the love of God, who Christians believe sacrificed his only son for the redemption of humankind.
A very popular devotion: The side wound and the Sacred Heart of Jesus
One of the most popular Christian devotions of the later Middle Ages was the holy side wound of Jesus Christ, which would become connected to the Sacred Heart of Jesus—a symbol of divine love that has persisted for centuries. (Shameless plug: I’ve written a whole book about this called Holy Organ or Unholy Idol: The Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Art, Religion, and Politics of New Spain, so if sacred hearts are your thing, you’re in luck! Though, this is a very academic book.)
A Book That Symbolizes Love—Literally
What makes the Chansonnier cordiforme de Montchenu even more fascinating is its physical form. When closed, the book forms a single heart. But when opened, it transforms into two paired hearts, symbolizing two lovers united. It captures the idea of love we still have today: just as reading the book requires opening it up, real love requires opening your heart to another person.
In this case, the idea of lovers united could relate to two specific individuals. It could also be more metaphorical and encapsulate the idea of a person uniting with God. This particular music book contains songs about love, specifically courtly love. The image inside it that displays two individuals are likely the two people whose hearts we are to imagine are now joined together.
The well-dressed couple walks together in a room decorated with red and blue wall hangings (likely tapestries). They link their arms as they walk and talk. Off to the left of this scene, set within the decorative flora, is a strange figure holding a bow and arrow, undoubtedly intended to call to mind Cupid.
You'll recall that at the outset of the book, another image features Cupid himself shooting an arrow into a woman's heart. Also appearing in the image is the figure Fortune, below whom a wheel spins.
The images help to guide readers and spark ideas about courtly love—that may or may not align specifically with the songs themselves.
Nothing says love like a blood pump
So, what can we learn from this medieval tradition of heart-shaped books? That hearts have long been symbols of more than just romance—they represent memory, knowledge, devotion, and sometimes, a clever visual pun.
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with chocolates, flowers, or a heartfelt (pun intended) note, remember: if you’re ever in doubt about what to give your Valentine, nothing says "I love you" quite like an elaborately illustrated book in the shape of a vital organ that pumps blood.
Stay tuned for more posts on about hearts in art!
Learn more
A link to the entire manuscript on Gallica from the Bibliotheque Nacional de France
Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank, "Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? Forming a History of the Sacred Heart in New Spain," Colonial Latin American Review (2014).
Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank, "A Burning Heart Can Save Your Soul," in Death and the Afterlife in the Early Modern Hispanic World (2010).
The introduction to Lauren G. Kilroy-Ewbank, Holy Organ or Unholy Idol? The Sacred Heart in the Art of Bourbon New Spain (2018).
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