歐洲社會自中古以來，一直有一類文獻教導並規範人際往來互動的規矩，這些作品通稱為「禮儀書」（courtesy books），其內容反映每一時代的文化價值與社會結構；其閱讀與實踐也常常成為區隔不同身分與地位的文化工具。自伊理亞斯（Norbert Elias, 1897-1990）《文明化的歷程》（Überden Prozess der Zivilisation）一書自1939 年問世以來，尤其是其英譯本在1978 年出版之後，學界對禮儀史的研究日趨重視。在伊理亞斯長時段的研究中，十六、十七世紀是歐洲禮儀觀念與行為變化的轉折期，因此本文特以此時期的禮儀書及禮儀觀為主體，回顧學界近三十年來研究發展的情形，期使中文學界對此主題有所掌握。本文共分為六節，前兩節介紹中古末期至近代早期禮儀書流通的背景，以及十六、十七世紀歐洲禮儀書的特色。在此基上，本文接著介紹伊理亞斯的研究，並討論近三十年來學界相關的研究成果。為使讀者能掌握不同時期的變化，本文將相關著作分為三個時期來討論，依序是：1980 年代、1990 年代、2000 年之後，並提出幾個未來可供努力的研究方向。

The term ‘courtesy books’ is commonly used to name a genre of literature, which has flourished since the Middle Ages in Europe, to teach and to formulate the rules of conduct in social life. Courtesy books could be viewed as the embodiment of the ideal values and social constructions in the periods of their writing. The reading of courtesy books and the practice of polite conduct were also a significant means to express social distinction in the medieval and modern times. A cornerstone for the study of courtesy books was built by Norbert Elias with his Civilizing Process, first published in 1939. Its English translation in 1978 has prompted more investigations of courtesy books and the ideas about social behavior since then. This article reviews the development of this research in the recent thirty years. It particularly focuses on those works done on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when a turning point occurred in the whole ‘civilizing process’, as Elias advocated. It includes six sections. The firs introduces the background of the writing and appropriation of courtesy books in late medieval and early modern Europe. The second discusses their characteristics developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Based on the first two sections, the following ones introduce and analyze Elias’s work and other variant researches on this topic in three consecutive periods: the 1980s, the 1990s and post-2000. As a whole, this review article illustrates the change and breakthrough of the scholarly investigation of courtesy books and their related ideas in the recent thirty years. In the end, it specifies a few topics which need further research for enriching our understanding of courtesy culture in Europe.