Léon Gautier - La chevalerie - 1890

Superb illustrated edition of this scholarly, passionate and methodical work on the medieval chivalric institution, which seeks to restitute its spirit, rules, practices and ideals in a historical, literary and moral synthesis of rare scope -

Divided into several parts, the work first explores the origins of knighthood, distinguishing it from feudal militias and emphasizing its rooting in Germanic, Christian and romance traditions -

Gautier then traces the rites of dubbing, the codes of conduct, the cardinal virtues of the knight — courage, loyalty, piety, courtesy — and the moral obligations that follow, notably the defense of the weak, fidelity to the suzerain and the just war -

He analyzes the relations between knighthood and religion, showing how the knightly ideal crystallized in the Crusades, the military orders and the hagiographic legends -

Finally, he examines the decline of knighthood at the end of the Middle Ages, its survivals in the noble orders and its ideal transfigured in modern culture -

Léon Gautier - La Chevalerie - SD (circa 1890) - Delagrave -
XV + 852 Pages.

Very good condition of the binding, work in full leather ornate with publisher’s illustration gilded and silver on a red background, slight signs of wear, gilded edges, smooth spine, gilded lettering and the author’s name, black and gold fillets stamped on the boards, upper board adorned with a knight “au Credo” -

Very good interior condition, pages browned, pretty headers, beautiful initial, drop caps, the work enriched with numerous engravings in black both in-text and out-of-text including a frontispiece, marbled endpapers in good condition, handwritten note "à René Décès en souvenir de sa 1ère communion le 22 mai 1910, sa grand-mère Flore" -

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