This is the first book any student of knighthood or chivalry should read. Not only is it a pleasure to read in terms of style, but it introduces all the main avenues of interest a student will likely follow, highlighting essential problems and tantalizing mysteries in each area.

In successive turns Dr. Keen examines the problematic idea of chivalry, both in the ideal and in practice. He provides a key model for understanding the complicated interplay between the church, the court, and the knight's own ideas. He introduces for the first time three key medieval commentators on chivalry, Geoffrey de Charny, Ramon Lull, and the author of the anonymous but influential Ordene de Chevalerie.

Originally released in 1986, the book has enjoyed both renown and success. Its bibliography alone is worth the cover price, yet even for the casual student it is a guarantee that something within will provide a pique to curiosity and a better understanding of what it meant to be a knight--real or imagined. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

1. Intdroduction: The Idea of Chivalry
2. The Secular Origins of Chivalry
3. Chivalry, the Church and Crusade
4. The Ceremony of Dubbing to Knighthood
5. The Rise of the Tournament
6. The Historical Mythology of Chivlary
7. Heraldry and Heralds
8. The Idea of Nobility
9. Arms, Nobility and Honor
10. The Secular Orders of Chivalry
11. Pageantry, Tournies and Solemn Vows
12. Chivalry and War

CHIVALRY
Maurice Keen
Yale University Press
Paperback edition only in print
ISBN  #0300033605
$25.00

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