Tracing in-scriptions of subjectivity in texts from 13th and 14th century France necessarily implies inquiring into the process of subjectification they reflect. From the "Roman de la Rose" in the versions by Guillaume de Loris and Jean de Meun to Guillaume de Machaut's "Livre du Voir-Dit" by way of the "Clefs d'Amors" and the "Dit de la Panthère d'Amours", the works studied here circumscribe a period not normally counted as an 'epoch' by literary historians. It is an interim period marking the transition from an attitude sub-scribing to a feudal/courtly ideal of culture to a practice of culture as the fruit of education and experience. Accordingly, the development traced by the study is a progression from a vision of truth derived from authority to a quest for self-identification authorized by the desire to write (about desire).