Before the self-help book

The opening page of the Enseignement de vraie noblesse ((The Instruction of True Nobility) in a manuscript from 1464. The Enseignement was a mirror for princes for the Burgundian court, Genève, Bibliothèque de Genève, Ms. fr. 166

I'll be honest and say it straight: I don't like self-help books, I think they are the opioid crisis of the book world. Everyw…