a. and sb. [a. F. curial, -ale adj., curiale sb., ad. L. cūriāl-is, f. cūria.]
A. adj.
† 1. Of or pertaining to a royal court; having the manners befitting a court; courtly. Obs.
1478. Liber Niger, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 45. And other fourmes curiall after the booke of urbanitie.
1484. Caxton, Curiall, 1. The lyf Curiall whyche thou desirest. Ibid., 3. The maner of the peple curyall or courtly.
1520. St. Papers Hen. VIII., II. 56. To … fall to more curiall, discrete, and clenly order, than ever they used before.
1560. Rolland, Crt. Venus, I. 793. And to my sisteris, and Ladyis curiall.
2. Of or pertaining to a curia: a. of an ancient Roman or an Italian curia; b. of a judicial, administrative, or other court; c. of the papal Curia.
1677. Govt. Venice, 230. The Vicar of the Podestat, or some other Curial Officer, is permitted to go in their stead.
1864. A. J. Horwood, Year Bks. 32–3 Edw. I. Introd. p. xix. note. In the celebrated Pinenden plea … there is no appearance of curial formalities being observed.
1882. Sat. Rev., 18 March, 323. The present Pope, so far as he is left untrammelled by the exigencies of conventional or curial etiquette.
B. sb.
† 1. A member of a court; a courtier. Obs.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 77. Thou maryd shal bene … To sum curyal of ryht gret dignite.
2. A member of an ancient Roman or an Italian curia.
1677. Govt. Venice, 230. If the Curial should become a Councellor, the Assistance … would degenerate into Counsel.
1861. J. G. Sheppard, Fall Rome, viii. 415. Each municipality was made responsible in the person of its curials, or chief officers … for its own amount of taxation.
1873. G. W. Kitchin, Hist. France, I. vi. I. 52. The curials (or members of the civil municipality) lost their authority.
† 3. A treatise on the Court. Obs.
The title given to the treatise or letter of Alain Chartier translated by Caxton.
1484. Caxton, Curiall, 6. Thus endeth the Curial made by Maystre Alain Charretier. Translated thus in Englysshe by Wylliam Caxton.
1822. K. Digby, Broadst. Hon. (1846), 327. What wisdom is in this sentence of Alain Chartier in his Curial!
