Book excerpt: This book delves into the question of the coexistence, convergence, and opposition between the sacred and the secular as reflected in Old French and Old Provençal poetry from the early to the late central Middle Ages, that is from the end of the ninth century until the thirteenth century. It breaks the boundaries between the intratextual dimension and the cultural and historical context wherefrom the texts emanated, in order to reassess the role of sacredness in the civilizational landscape of France and Occitania during the golden age of Old French and Old Provençal poetry. It will interest not only Romanists, but also historians, specialists of the history of religions, and students and scholars of general and comparative literature.