This comparative study examines Floire and Blancheflor and shows how medieval writers from Spain, France, Italy, England, and Scandinavia reworked this story from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries to develop and emphasize social, political, religious and artistic goals. It shows the influence of a little-known medieval Spanish version, especially as a precursor to Boccaccio's Il Filocolo, and examines important issues of the development of prose fiction in medieval and Renaissance Europe.