Customer Reviews

Book of Knighthood & Chivalry (and the anonymous Ordene de Chevalerie)

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Whether you're a medievalist, historian, martial artist, or an escapist role player who pretends that you're a knight, this book will teach you what REAL chivalry was. Anyone interested in european martial history, or in becoming a better person should read this. My thanks to mr. Price for making it available once again.

Ramon Lull spent his youthful years as a knight in his native land of Catalonia (northeast Spain). During that time, his life very much resembled that of an Arthurian champion, experiencing adventures of both martial and amorous nature. In his later years, he experienced a religious enlightenment, and retired to the forest, to live as a hermit in meditation. He left all his wealth and lands to his children and became a hermit. Being an educated man, he devoted his time to writing a large quantity of books, in multiple languages.
One of his most important books, is this one, a moral guide-line for the ideals of Chivalry. This is a treatise on the highest idealized standards of behavior for the Christian warrior. Within, Ramon Lull described the virtues a knight should aspire to, and the vices he should avoid. He describes the test a candidate for knighthood should undergo, the duties a knight owes to his liege and those he would protect, the ceremony of knighting, and the symbolism of a knight's weapons, armor,and equipment.
There was no precisely defined and unified Code of Chivalry, but it was a general concept of right versus wrong, and what we know of it comes from other such books and Medieval lore passed down through the ages. Some Orders of knighthood did establish their own particular versions of the code, but they all largely emphasized the same noble virtues.
Not all knights lived up to this ideology, some, in fact ignored it completely. However, there were some knights who did indeed live up to this code as closely as a mortal man can.
In our increasingly cynical secularist age, with its concept of "moral relativism", the Code of Chivalry is needed now, more than ever.

I ordered this book with great anticipation, since this text isn't readily available and hasn't had a proper academic treatment since the translation into Middle-English in 1484 (by William Caxton) and Victorian edition (in 1915 by William Morris). Unfortunately, though I was expecting a good new translated edition of the originals with all the expected academic material (footnotes and a helpful introduction), rather I was greeted by William Caxton's (at points, lamentably poor) translation, "rendered into Modern English" and given a flouncy pseudo-medieval "Olde Englishe" font.

The text is, perhaps, fine for someone just getting familiarized with the material, but really isn't suitable for use in academic writing, and should, in my opinion, be avoided. The Caxton translation is pretty widely available online and for free.

This book is excellent. Anyone wishing to know the TRUE code of Chivalry needs to read this book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!