Antoine de La Sale wrote moral and didactic works cast in a literary mold. His eclectic narrative style, intriguing choice of subjects, and distinctive sense of order converged to produce a literature that is both edifying and enjoyable. As preceptor for the prices of two of the finest courts of France in the fifteenth century, Anjou and Luxembourg, La Sale wrote to instruct and entertain the highest aristocracy. Examples of courtly performance in its largest sense, his works capture the tastes, trends, and preoccupations of that privileged milieu while fulfilling a humanistic demand for knowledge and wisdom. La Sale's writings are as multifaceted as his own life experience: he was a soldier versed in all facets of chivalric activity, but he was also a scholar of broad learning. The joy that he derived from his own studies permeates his writings: “me suis delicté a traire de mains...