Customer Reviews

History of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and the Several Orders of Knighthood in Europe

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Saw an original on eBay. 1715 IS the original print of the book under this name unlike the other reviewer states. I got this from the biography of Elias Ashmole:

"Ashmole's principal work is his 'Institution, Laws, and Ceremonies of the Order of the Garter' (1672), one of those books which exhaust the subject of which they treat and leave scope only for supplements. The edition of 1693 is a mere reprint; but in 1715 a new edition was published under the title of 'The History of the Order of the Garter,' with a continuation by T. Walker." -- "Dictionary of National Biography" (1891)

Good read, and discusses many other secret societies/orders. If you can find the original, KEEP it!

A scholarly account of the history of knighthood in Europe and the culture of knighthood is well laid out in this amazingly rare and impressive book. Glad to have found it!

The market for this book is limited in the extreme, but to the right people it's a goldmine. Ashmole was one of the first modern historians, who applied considerable research and careful critical examination of evidence to draw conclusions. If you are interested in the history of the Garter, the British orders of knighthood, or early English historiography, this is a worthwhile book. It certainly should be on the shelf of any self-respecting research library, as it forms a marvelous primary source for a wide variety of research.

The publisher's description of this book is nonsense. The book was published in the 1660's, not 1715. While Ashmole was the first known English Freemason, and among the last of practicing alchemists, he was hardly a mystery-man. The Order of the Garter, while profoundly exclusive, isn't remotely secretive. A more recent survey of that great order may be found in Begent and Chesshyre's <i>The Most Noble Order of the Garter: 650 Years</i>. And if it took the publishers 5 years to find a copy, they weren't looking very hard.

I give three stars as a cop-out rating. After all, how do I properly rate a 340 year old reference book? It has research value. It has wonderful engraved illustrations, though I don't know how well the current publisher reproduces them. My copy is one of the crown jewels of my heraldry library.