Why read The Origins of Courtliness?

Book cover of The Origins of Courtliness: Civilizing Trends and the Formation of Courtly Ideals, 939-1210

Book description

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book

Argues that the origins of courtliness lie in the German courts, their courtier class, and the education for court service in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Origins of Courtliness as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Albrecht Classen

Author

This is the seminal study on the origins of courtliness via early medieval German bishops adopting Ciceronian ideals which were handed down to the French nobility, and from there the nobility in the rest of Europe followed suit. Jaeger offers the most unusual but best explanation for this unique process. He succeeds in demonstrating the narrative tradition from Roman ethics and philosophy to early medieval culture.

From Albrecht's list on The best books with passage through the labyrinth of life through a medieval lens.