1884 French 1stED in a Spectacular Binding - Chevalerie, Chivalry by L .Gautier

Author: Léon Gautier.
Title: La Chevalerie.
Language: Text in French.
Publisher: Paris, Victor Palmé, Éditeur, 1884. First edition (Édition originale).
Size: 11.5" x 8.5".
Pages: xv, 788 pages.
Binding: Very good to near fine and spectacular original publisher’s pictorial red binding, elaborately decorated in gilt, black and silver, with a large medieval knight holding the banner “Credo” to the front board, richly ornamented borders, and a pictorial gilt spine. Decorative patterned endpapers. Hinges fine and binding firm. All edges gilt. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good to near fine content (bright, tight and clean), particularly well preserved for this large nineteenth-century volume, as shown.
Illustrations: Complete with 152 black-and-white figures in the text and 25 engraved plates by Luc-Olivier Merson, Édouard Zier and A. Méaulle, depicting knights, medieval ceremonies, battles, armour, religious and domestic scenes, together with numerous decorative initials, ornaments and vignettes throughout.

The book: A magnificent first edition of Léon Gautier’s monumental La Chevalerie, published in Paris in 1884. Lavishly produced and extensively illustrated, the work explores the history, ideals, ceremonies and everyday life of medieval knighthood. Gautier examines the code of chivalry, the education and training of the knight, religious and military duties, tournaments, marriage, domestic life, warfare and ultimately the death of the chevalier. The imposing original pictorial binding, extensive series of engravings and gilt edges make this one of the most visually striking nineteenth-century works devoted to medieval chivalry. A beautiful book.

The author: Léon Gautier (1832–1897) was a French literary historian, archivist and medieval scholar, and one of the leading nineteenth-century authorities on medieval French literature and chivalric culture. A graduate and later professor at the École des Chartes, he devoted much of his career to the study of the chansons de geste and the social, religious and military ideals of the Middle Ages. His works helped revive scholarly and popular interest in medieval France, with La Chevalerie becoming one of his best-known and most ambitious studies.