Chivalric Manuals
Items with individual links may be ordered online from Amazon.com
Search the Amazon.com catalog below for items you don't see here:
Llull, Ramon. The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry or Knyghthode.
trans. William Caxton. Walter J Johnson, 1977.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
Llull, Ramon. The Book of the Order of Chivalry.
trans. Robert Adams. Sam Houston State University Press, 1991.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Llull, Ramon. Selected works of Ramon Llull.
edited and translated by Anthony Bonner. Princeton University Press, c1985.
Ramon Llull was a noble and a knight who enjoyed the good life and a reputation as a ladies man until he experienced a religious vision near his thirtieth year. After that he became a monk and wrote many works in Latin and his native Catalan before his death at the age of 92.
The Book of Knighthood and Chivalry was one of the more widely read of the chivalric manuals with it being translated into most of the languages of Europe during the next 150 years. It takes its form as the story of an encounter between a young squire who gets lost while heading to court who then meets an aging knight turned hermit. Their conversation includes the older knight's image of what ideals an aspiring knight should strive to live up to and his concept of the knighting ceremony. Llull also stresses that the strength and authority of the knights must be tempered with a concern for those less able to defend themselves.
Geoffroi De Charny d.1355
Kaeuper, Richard W., and Kennedy, Elspeth. The Book of Chivalry of
Geoffroi De Charny: Text, Context, and Translation (Middle Ages Series).
Univ of Pennsylvania Press, (1996).
Click Here to Order Softcover via Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
During his career Geoffroi de Charny made himself the reputation of being one of the premier knights of France, and a staunch supporter supporter of the French monarchy. He was outspoken in favor of reforming the morality and improvement of the prowess of the chivalry of France. His three works were probably written in conjunction with the creation of the Company of the Star (of which Geoffroi was one of the premier members) by King Jean II in 1352. In his Book of Chivalry Charny attempts to resolve the practicalities of making a career of knighthood with ideals of chivalry.
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. (1996) "Questions for the Joust, Tournament, and War," Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry. a partial translation has been done by Daryle Pompeo. v.12, 42-52.
Available at The Chivalry Bookshelf: The Chivalry Bookshelf
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. Livre Charny. "A Critical Edition of Geoffry de Charny's 'Livre Charny' and the 'Demands pour la joute, les tournois, et la guerre,'"
ed. Michael Anthony Taylor. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1977.
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. "Demands pour la joute, les tournois, et la guerre de Geoffroy de Charny (XIVème siècle),"
ed. Jean Rossbach. Unpublished dissertation, University of Brussels, 1961-62, deposited in the Bibliothèque Royale.
Henry, duke of Lancaster, 1299?-1361.
Henry, duke of Lancaster. Le livre de seyntz medicines; the unpublished devotional treatise of Henry of Lancaster.
text edited by E.J. Arnould. Oxford, Pub. for the Anglo-Norman text society by B. Blackwell, 1940.
Originally written in French. This is a series of personal confessions in the form of a prayer describing the seven wounds or sores which afflict his soul. A translation to look forward too; not only did Henry concentrate on the spiritual more than the most of the other authors, but he was one of the major influences on Edward III of England who was so fascinated with the ideals of chivalry.
In the absence of an English translation one can refer to the following articles for discussions of Henry's work. (You will probably be able to get them via Interlibrary loan from a college or public library):
Arnould, E.J.F. (1937) "Henry of Lancaster and his 'Livre de seyntz medicines,'" Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 21: 352-386.
Krochalis, Jeanne. Dean, Ruth J. (1973) "Henry of Lancaster's Livre de Seyntz Medicines': New Fragments of an Anglo-Norman Work," The National Library of Wales Journal. 18:87-94.
Labarge, Margaret Wade. (1980) "Henry of Lancaster and Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines," Florilegium: Carleton University Papers on Late Antiquity & the Middle Ages. 2:183-191.
Geoffroy de La Tour-Landry written ca.1372
La Tour-Landry, Geoffroy de, 14th cent. The Book of the Knight
of La Tour-Landry, compiled for the instruction of his daughters.
Translated from the original French into English in the reign of Henry VI, and
edited for the first time from the unique manuscript in the British Museum,
Harl. 1764, and Caxton's print, A.D. 1484, with an introd. and notes by
Thomas Wright.
AMS Press, 1993. (Reprint of the 1906 ed.)
Early English Text Society. Publications. Original series, no. 33
Translation of the author's Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
La Tour-Landry, Geoffroy de, 14th cent. Book of the Knight of the Tower.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. (Early English Text Society, Supplementary)
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
As the title implies this was written by a father (in this case a widower) concerned for the welfare of his daughters. The knight takes a very moral stance and is plainly disapproving about the behavior of his peers. He warns his daughters to not be led astray by smooth-talking courtiers or to embarrass the family.
Since finding this book is somewhat challenging one might want to look at the following chapter:
Ho, Cynthia. (1994) "As Good as Her Word Women's Language in 'The Knight of La Tour d'Landry,'"
The Rusted Hauberk: Feudal Ideals of Order and Their Decline. eds. Liam O. Purdon and Cindy L. Vitto. University Press of Florida. Chapter 5, 99-120.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Clanvowe, John. (b. 1341 - d.1391).
Clanvowe, John. The Works of Sir John Clanvowe.
ed. V.J. Scattergood. Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Sir John Clanvowe was a Lollard knight, and an admirer and friend of Geoffrey Chaucer.
René of Anjou ca.1460.
René of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily.
King René's Tournament Book. trans. Elizabeth Bennett.
This work by René is much more a detailed description of how to organize a tournament than a chivalric manual. However it remains pertinent to the discussion since tourneys provided a fertile training ground for the chivalry of the previous three centuries, and also as an interesting view of what this 15th Century knight believed tourneys to be like in earlier centuries.
Miscellaneous.
The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster.
A Collotype Reproduction of the Manuscript. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
Intro. by Sydney Anglo, and Foreward by Sir Anthony Wagner, Garter King of Arms.
Record of the feats of Henry VIII in a tournament held in 1511.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Hay, Sir Gilbert. fl. 1456. The Prose Works of Sir Gilbert Hay.
ed. Johnathan A. Glenn, and John Cartwright. The Scottish Text Society, 1993. 3 volumes
Rutgers ALEX PR8633.S431P ser.4 no.21 v.3
Contains Scottish translations of: The Buke of the ordre of knychthede by Lull.
the Buke of the gouernaunce of princis is from a French version of the Secretum secretorum.
The buik of King Alexander the Conquerour
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Return to Table of Contents
John of Salisbury. 1159.
Bonet, Honore, written ca.1387.
Bonet, Honore. The Tree of Battles of Honore Bonet
(alt. spelling Bouvet); an English version with introduction G. W. Coopland,
with a hitherto unpublished historical interpolation.
Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1949.
Out of print.
Although Honore Bonet of Provence was a clerk and not a knight this work was one of the most widely read and copied of its genre. Bonet spoke out for reform and the solving of the constant strife within Christian Europe with the knowledge of one who had seen the effects of civil war and oppressive administrations in his own country, who had first hand knowledge of the politics of the French realm, and of the papacy in Avignon, and who was also extremely well informed about Spain, Portugal, Hungary and the threat of the Turkish to the East.
Bonet's work is organized around a series of over 100 questions. These range from defining when a war is just and when it is not, the behavior of an ideal knight and also one's conduct of in war and peace. Bonet borrowed heavily from John of Legnano's Tractatus de bello, which was written or completed about 1360 while a large army was besieging Bologna.
ca.1360
Legnano, Giovanni da, d.1383. Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello.
edited and translated by Thomas Erskine Holland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1917.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
McCall, John P. (1967) "The Writings of John of Legnano with a List of Manuscripts,"
Traditio-Studies in Ancient & Medieval History Thought & Religion. 23:415-437.
ca. 1210-1220?
Pisan, Christine de, ca. 1364-ca. 1431.
Pisan, Christine de. The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye.
(Caxton, 1489) translated by A.T.P. Byles. Early English Text Society, 1998.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Another text which discusses the proper conduct of a knight and some of the rules of war, and which borrows heavily from Bonet. This edition lists the sections which were strongly influenced by Bonet's The Tree of Battles.
Pisan, Christine de. The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry.
translated by Sumner Willard and Charity Cannon Willard. Penn State University Press, 1999.
I am hoping that this will be a translation into modern English.
Not yet published. But you can preorder copies in hardcover OR paperback from Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Softcover via Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
More commentary on Christine de Pisan's work can be gotten from:
The Reception of Christine de Pizan from the Fifteenth Through the Nineteenth Centuries: Visitors to the City. edited by Glenda K. McLeod. NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
1457-1460
Knyghthode and Bataile. A XVth Century Verse Paraphrase of Flavius Vegetius Renatus' Treatise "De Re Militari".
eds. R. Dyboski and Z.M. Arend. London: DS Brewer, 1995. (EETS)
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
1475
The Boke of Noblesse: addressed to King Edward IV on his invasion of France in 1475.
introduction by J.G. Nicholls (Roxburghe Club, 1860) Reprinted by NY: Burt Franklin, 1972.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
An anonymous work which exhorts Englishmen to renew efforts to retake former English holdings upon the Continent. While not a chivalric manual per se the author does argue certain points about the rightness of this war by referring to Bonet's The Tree of Battles as an authoritative source. Though since he refers to it as being written by a dame Christine it seems likely that he was working with a copy of Christine de Pisan's The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyvalrye which relied heavily upon Bonet's work.
John of Salisbury. 1159.
ca. 1210-1220?
Hodenc, Raoul De. Le Roman Des Eles : The Anonymous Ordene De Chevalerie.
John Benjamins Pub Co., 1983.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Two texts which date to the early 13th Century. They are probably the oldest items that are more treatise on chivalry than story included in this bibliography.
The Romance of the Wings is a very socially oriented work which concerns itself more with how a knight should act than with the symbolism of knighthood. It explains that prowess will only cause a knight to rise in the world if that prowess is lifted by the two wings of liberality (meaning largesse) and courtesy. Each wing is composed of seven feathers representing some facet of largesse or courtesy.
The Ordene de Chevalerie (The Order of Knighthood) was probably written about a decade later presents the fictional story of Hue of Tabarie a crusader who has been captured by Saladin. To win his freedom Hue must tell Saladin how a knight is made and as such leads his captor through his idealized knighting ceremony. This story's version of a knighting ceremony shows up again and again in many of the subsequent manuals.
Ramon Llull 1223-1315
Llull, Ramon. The Book of the Order of Chivalry.
A translation into modern English by Brian R. Price from the William Caxton 1484 edition. A Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry Monograph, 1994.
This is the only edition in modern English edition that I know of that is in print at the moment.
Order via Chivalry Bookshelf.
Llull, Ramon. The Book of the Ordre of Chyvalry or Knyghthode.
trans. William Caxton. Walter J Johnson, 1977.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
Llull, Ramon. The Book of the Order of Chivalry.
trans. Robert Adams. Sam Houston State University Press, 1991.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Llull, Ramon. Selected works of Ramon Llull.
edited and translated by Anthony Bonner. Princeton University Press, c1985.
Ramon Llull was a noble and a knight who enjoyed the good life and a reputation as a ladies man until he experienced a religious vision near his thirtieth year. After that he became a monk and wrote many works in Latin and his native Catalan before his death at the age of 92.
The Book of Knighthood and Chivalry was one of the more widely read of the chivalric manuals with it being translated into most of the languages of Europe during the next 150 years. It takes its form as the story of an encounter between a young squire who gets lost while heading to court who then meets an aging knight turned hermit. Their conversation includes the older knight's image of what ideals an aspiring knight should strive to live up to and his concept of the knighting ceremony. Llull also stresses that the strength and authority of the knights must be tempered with a concern for those less able to defend themselves.
Geoffroi De Charny d.1355
Kaeuper, Richard W., and Kennedy, Elspeth. The Book of Chivalry of
Geoffroi De Charny: Text, Context, and Translation (Middle Ages Series).
Univ of Pennsylvania Press, (1996).
Click Here to Order Softcover via Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
During his career Geoffroi de Charny made himself the reputation of being one of the premier knights of France, and a staunch supporter supporter of the French monarchy. He was outspoken in favor of reforming the morality and improvement of the prowess of the chivalry of France. His three works were probably written in conjunction with the creation of the Company of the Star (of which Geoffroi was one of the premier members) by King Jean II in 1352. In his Book of Chivalry Charny attempts to resolve the practicalities of making a career of knighthood with ideals of chivalry.
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. (1996) "Questions for the Joust, Tournament, and War," Chronique: The Journal of Chivalry. a partial translation has been done by Daryle Pompeo. v.12, 42-52.
Available at The Chivalry Bookshelf: The Chivalry Bookshelf
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. Livre Charny. "A Critical Edition of Geoffry de Charny's 'Livre Charny' and the 'Demands pour la joute, les tournois, et la guerre,'"
ed. Michael Anthony Taylor. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1977.
Charny, Geoffroi de, d. 1355. "Demands pour la joute, les tournois, et la guerre de Geoffroy de Charny (XIVème siècle),"
ed. Jean Rossbach. Unpublished dissertation, University of Brussels, 1961-62, deposited in the Bibliothèque Royale.
Henry, duke of Lancaster, 1299?-1361.
Henry, duke of Lancaster. Le livre de seyntz medicines; the unpublished devotional treatise of Henry of Lancaster.
text edited by E.J. Arnould. Oxford, Pub. for the Anglo-Norman text society by B. Blackwell, 1940.
Originally written in French. This is a series of personal confessions in the form of a prayer describing the seven wounds or sores which afflict his soul. A translation to look forward too; not only did Henry concentrate on the spiritual more than the most of the other authors, but he was one of the major influences on Edward III of England who was so fascinated with the ideals of chivalry.
In the absence of an English translation one can refer to the following articles for discussions of Henry's work. (You will probably be able to get them via Interlibrary loan from a college or public library):
Arnould, E.J.F. (1937) "Henry of Lancaster and his 'Livre de seyntz medicines,'" Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 21: 352-386.
Krochalis, Jeanne. Dean, Ruth J. (1973) "Henry of Lancaster's Livre de Seyntz Medicines': New Fragments of an Anglo-Norman Work," The National Library of Wales Journal. 18:87-94.
Labarge, Margaret Wade. (1980) "Henry of Lancaster and Le Livre de Seyntz Medicines," Florilegium: Carleton University Papers on Late Antiquity & the Middle Ages. 2:183-191.
Geoffroy de La Tour-Landry written ca.1372
La Tour-Landry, Geoffroy de, 14th cent. The Book of the Knight
of La Tour-Landry, compiled for the instruction of his daughters.
Translated from the original French into English in the reign of Henry VI, and
edited for the first time from the unique manuscript in the British Museum,
Harl. 1764, and Caxton's print, A.D. 1484, with an introd. and notes by
Thomas Wright.
AMS Press, 1993. (Reprint of the 1906 ed.)
Early English Text Society. Publications. Original series, no. 33
Translation of the author's Livre pour l'enseignement de ses filles.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
La Tour-Landry, Geoffroy de, 14th cent. Book of the Knight of the Tower.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971. (Early English Text Society, Supplementary)
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
As the title implies this was written by a father (in this case a widower) concerned for the welfare of his daughters. The knight takes a very moral stance and is plainly disapproving about the behavior of his peers. He warns his daughters to not be led astray by smooth-talking courtiers or to embarrass the family.
Since finding this book is somewhat challenging one might want to look at the following chapter:
Ho, Cynthia. (1994) "As Good as Her Word Women's Language in 'The Knight of La Tour d'Landry,'"
The Rusted Hauberk: Feudal Ideals of Order and Their Decline. eds. Liam O. Purdon and Cindy L. Vitto. University Press of Florida. Chapter 5, 99-120.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Bonet, Honore, written ca.1387.
Bonet, Honore. The Tree of Battles of Honore Bonet
(alt. spelling Bouvet); an English version with introduction G. W. Coopland,
with a hitherto unpublished historical interpolation.
Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1949.
Out of print.
Although Honore Bonet of Provence was a clerk and not a knight this work was one of the most widely read and copied of its genre. Bonet spoke out for reform and the solving of the constant strife within Christian Europe with the knowledge of one who had seen the effects of civil war and oppressive administrations in his own country, who had first hand knowledge of the politics of the French realm, and of the papacy in Avignon, and who was also extremely well informed about Spain, Portugal, Hungary and the threat of the Turkish to the East.
Bonet's work is organized around a series of over 100 questions. These range from defining when a war is just and when it is not, the behavior of an ideal knight and also one's conduct of in war and peace. Bonet borrowed heavily from John of Legnano's Tractatus de bello, which was written or completed about 1360 while a large army was besieging Bologna.
ca.1360
Legnano, Giovanni da, d.1383. Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello.
edited and translated by Thomas Erskine Holland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1917.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
McCall, John P. (1967) "The Writings of John of Legnano with a List of Manuscripts,"
Traditio-Studies in Ancient & Medieval History Thought & Religion. 23:415-437.
Pisan, Christine de, ca. 1364-ca. 1431.
Pisan, Christine de. The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyualrye.
(Caxton, 1489) translated by A.T.P. Byles. Early English Text Society, 1998.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
Another text which discusses the proper conduct of a knight and some of the rules of war, and which borrows heavily from Bonet. This edition lists the sections which were strongly influenced by Bonet's The Tree of Battles.
Pisan, Christine de. The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry.
translated by Sumner Willard and Charity Cannon Willard. Penn State University Press, 1999.
I am hoping that this will be a translation into modern English.
Not yet published. But you can preorder copies in hardcover OR paperback from Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Softcover via Amazon Books.
Click Here to Order Hardcover via Amazon Books.
More commentary on Christine de Pisan's work can be gotten from:
The Reception of Christine de Pizan from the Fifteenth Through the Nineteenth Centuries: Visitors to the City. edited by Glenda K. McLeod. NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
Click Here to Order via Amazon Books.
1457-1460
Knyghthode and Bataile. A XVth Century Verse Paraphrase of Flavius Vegetius Renatus' Treatise "De Re Militari".
eds. R. Dyboski and Z.M. Arend. London: DS Brewer, 1995. (EETS)
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Clanvowe, John. (b. 1341 - d.1391).
Clanvowe, John. The Works of Sir John Clanvowe.
ed. V.J. Scattergood. Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Sir John Clanvowe was a Lollard knight, and an admirer and friend of Geoffrey Chaucer.
René of Anjou ca.1460.
René of Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily.
King René's Tournament Book. trans. Elizabeth Bennett.
This work by René is much more a detailed description of how to organize a tournament than a chivalric manual. However it remains pertinent to the discussion since tourneys provided a fertile training ground for the chivalry of the previous three centuries, and also as an interesting view of what this 15th Century knight believed tourneys to be like in earlier centuries.
1475
The Boke of Noblesse: addressed to King Edward IV on his invasion of France in 1475.
introduction by J.G. Nicholls (Roxburghe Club, 1860) Reprinted by NY: Burt Franklin, 1972.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
An anonymous work which exhorts Englishmen to renew efforts to retake former English holdings upon the Continent. While not a chivalric manual per se the author does argue certain points about the rightness of this war by referring to Bonet's The Tree of Battles as an authoritative source. Though since he refers to it as being written by a dame Christine it seems likely that he was working with a copy of Christine de Pisan's The Book of Fayttes of Armes and of Chyvalrye which relied heavily upon Bonet's work.
Miscellaneous.
The Great Tournament Roll of Westminster.
A Collotype Reproduction of the Manuscript. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
Intro. by Sydney Anglo, and Foreward by Sir Anthony Wagner, Garter King of Arms.
Record of the feats of Henry VIII in a tournament held in 1511.
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Hay, Sir Gilbert. fl. 1456. The Prose Works of Sir Gilbert Hay.
ed. Johnathan A. Glenn, and John Cartwright. The Scottish Text Society, 1993. 3 volumes
Rutgers ALEX PR8633.S431P ser.4 no.21 v.3
Contains Scottish translations of: The Buke of the ordre of knychthede by Lull.
the Buke of the gouernaunce of princis is from a French version of the Secretum secretorum.
The buik of King Alexander the Conquerour
Out of Print. Try finding in rare and used book stores through Bookfinder.com.
Return to Table of Contents