PIMSPontifical Institute
of
Mediaeval Studies

A summary of arguments disproving the existence of the “Code of Chivalry” (invented by literary scholars and adopted by historians in the years between 1759 and 1818), on the dual basis of a survey of the recorded meanings of the words of the caballerius family before 1610, and of a comparative examination of 46 proposed codes for the behaviour of noblemen composed in or translated into Romance languages and English between 1170 and 1475.

D’Arcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton is Professor Emeritus of History and Medieval Studies, University of Notre Dame, and Visiting Fellow of the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2015–20.