The Armour Archive

ok, I'm trying to find latin equivalent words to the following 6 virtues as they relate to chivalry as we observe it with the SCA:

Prowess
Largesse
Loyalty
Franchise
Courtesy
Faith

Yes, I know that there are many other virtues. I'm looking for these 6 specifically.
Yes, I know that chivalry is very post-latin and that old french would work much better. But this is for an art project that is in the style of the Bayeaux Tapesty, and all of the text on there is in latin.
Any suggestions for equivalent words would be appreciated.
-Marcello

My Cassell's renders:
Prowess virtus (-utis) or fortitudo
Largesse (which I use roughly as generosity) benignitas, or liberalitas or beneficentia
Loyalty fides or fidelitas
Franchise nobilitas
Courtesy urbanitas or comitas
Faith fides or pietas (think more piety for the second one)

Jean-Michel

Those are good translations. I don't have the sources to check up on the medieval usage of each of those (since Cassell's is working from Classical, not medieval, definitions), but I can make a few comments. (As a note: courtliness began in Latin before entering the vernacular, so you don't have to use a vernacular to capture the ideas.)

Curialitas is the best translation for courtesy. It's a medieval neologism, and specifically refers to the courtesy / courtliness.

I would choose fortitudo rather than virtus, though I can't find a reference on my bookshelf to support this hunch. I would suggest fidelitas (fidelity) over fides (faith / trust) with more certainty. Pietas (piety) is probably better than fides, like J-M suggested.

Really, though, the only virtues on this list that would have applied to a knight in the 11th century, when the Bayeux Tapestry was embroidered, are Prowess and perhaps loyalty. Knights didn't value the other things until the late 12th or early 13th century, well after the period of the type of needlework you're doing. Now, if you're talking about these things in a religious context that's fine; but trying to connect these virtues to lay knights would be very out of place.

Alric of Drentha wrote:Really, though, the only virtues on this list that would have applied to a knight in the 11th century, when the Bayeux Tapestry was embroidered, are Prowess and perhaps loyalty.

Yeah, I know. I have considered just going with "Preudome" as a single word on the piece, as that would be most appropriate in period. Although I believe it's french instead of latin, which makes it not quite fit either.

This project is best described as 'medieval-esque'. It's a tattoo to celebrate my knighting, and the virtues listed are the ones spoken about at my ceremony.