On Commanding

[1] The Catalan and Occitan word franc (Frankish *frank and Late Latin Francus, i.e the. name of the Frankish people) denotes an attribute which derives from the feudal terminology used to convey the nobility and generosity of the lover (e.g. the troubadour’s midons is often praised for being franca), cf. E. M. Ghil, “Imagery and Vocabulary”, in F. R. P. Akehurst & J. M. Davis, A Handbook of the Troubadours, UCP 1995, p. 443. The term also maintains the meaning of “free (or at liberty)/freed (or liberated)” (e.g. the English verb “affranchise”). In Llull’s writings, it is often linked with the concept of free will, to which he refers interchangeably as libre arbitre (“free will”) and franc arbitre (also “free will’). In Dante’s Rime (“Rhymes”) CXI (ll. 9-11), we likewise find “Però nel cerchio de la sua palestra / Liber arbitrio già mai non fu franco / sì che consiglio in van si balestra.” (“Thus in the round arena that contains / Love’s combat no free will was ever free, / so that good counsel shoots its darts in vain”, translation by A. Mortimer, Dante, Rime, 2009, p. 171).