Courtesy

Courtesy (from the word courteis, from the 12th century) is gentle politeness and courtly manners. In the Middle Ages in Europe, the behaviour expected of the nobility was compiled in courtesy books.

History

The apex of European courtly culture was reached in the

(i.e. roughly the four centuries spanning 1300–1700). The oldest courtesy books date to the 13th century, but they become an influential genre in the 16th, with the most influential of them being Il Cortegiano (1508), which not only covered basic etiquette and decorum but also provided models of sophisticated conversation and intellectual skill.^[1]

The royal courts of Europe persisted well into the 18th century (and to some limited extent to the present day), but in the 18th century, the notion of courtesy was replaced by that of

.

The analogue concept in the court culture of medieval India was known by the Sanskrit term dakṣiṇya, literally meaning "right-handedness", but as in English dexterity having a figurative meaning of "apt, clever, appropriate", glossed as "kindness and consideration expressed in a sophisticated and elegant way".^[2]

See also

• Military courtesy

References

1. ^ Head, Dominic, ed. (2006), "courtesy book", The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, p. 249
2. ISBN 9780521816274

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Courtesy.

• "Courtesy" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 7 (11th ed.). 1911.