Wisdom and Chivalry

Stephen H. Rigby, Ph.D. (1983) in History, University of London, is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Social and Economic History. He has published extensively on medieval history and literature and on social theory including English Society in the Later Middle Ages and Chaucer in Context.

“...His exposition of Giles is supplemented by a dazzling amount of reading in medieval thought and literature...Indeed one of the pleasures of this book is not just the exhibition of the interchange between Chaucer and the ideological tradition with which he grew up but also of the way literary works across much of Europe,..., refracted and reflected this tradition, sometimes passing it between themselves...The great merit of this approach is that the interpretation ceases to be merely in the eye of the beholder and subject to some modern political or literary theory but is firmly grounded in the understanding that Chaucer himself is likely to have had. ... He has laid down a challenge to literary critics of the period to be less ahistorical and more sensitive to the meaning of the words they study which they would do well to take up. His analysis of the Tale is a tour de force…The really great debt any historian of this period owes him is his masterly exposition of Giles, the Aegidian tradition and the wider medieval world of philosophy and political theory within which he situates both Giles and Chaucer... This is a splendid book. One hopes that students of medieval literature will give it the serious attention it deserves and learn from it but it also has a great deal to offer to medieval historians.”Christine Carpenter, Reviews in History, review no. 1057 (2011)“…one can be grateful to Stephen Rigby for bringing political philosophy home to the Canterbury gathering's lead-off tale…”John M. Hill, The Medieval Review 11.06.16“…Rigby lays out his argument in detail, creating a deeply layered context to support his contention that Chaucer’s richly problematic text is also a morally consistent one…”Caroline P. Collette, Speculum, vol. 86, issue 4 (2011)“Wisdom and Chivalry is a deeply researched and closely argued piece of historical criticism….”Robert Emmett Finnegan, Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 33 (2011)

• PrefaceAbbreviations in the Text and NotesIntroduction the ‘Knight’s Tale’ in ContextPart 1 Ethics: The Good Rule of the Self1. The ‘Knight’s Tale’ as Ethics: the Aristotelian Virtues2. The ‘Knight’s Tale’ as Ethics: the Passions and the Ages of ManPart II Economics and Politics the Good Rule of Others3. The ‘Knight’s Tale’ as Economics: The Good Rule of the Household4. The ‘Knight’s Tale’ as Politics: The Good Rule of the CommunityPart III The First Mover and the Good Rule of the Cosmos5. The ‘Knight’s Tale’ as Cosmography: The Good Rule of the UniverseConclusion Chaucer: Literature, History and IdeologyBibliographyIndex