Studies in Medieval Food

Sturlies in Medieval Foods
Scholars tend to slide into the field of medieval European food from two classical
disciplines, that is, from two separate directions: Iiterature and history
(including sociology and anthropology) . Because no distinct discipline of „historic
food“ has yet been fully recognized as Iegitimale among the panoply of
authentic scholarly specializations, academics who have – for some idiosyncratic
reason – come to fix their attention upon questions having to do with the alimentation,
recipes, cookery and gastronomy of times past bring with them
methods and interests that, generally speaking, have been formed by either
literary of historic diciplines. This Iack of legitimacy for the whole new field
of study in historic food, together with the consequent suspicion with which
work in this field is viewed by those colleagues occupying the traditional fields,
and the absence so far of any universal agreement among the new specialists
about the methods to be used, or even their aims, have limited progress i n
t h e area t o relatively minor and for t h e most part Independent achievements
by perhaps three score of scholars throughout the world. Their numbers are
probably equally divided between historians and literators.
On the one band, the problem of legitimacy has been attacked head-on by
the insistence that modern science can properly apply its objective methods
to any data concerning historic food. Primarily these methods involve quantification.
Statistkai studies have yielded, or they have at least organized and
clarified, much Information about food habits in the past; and the systematic
analysis of old charters and records has led to a variety of useful conclusions
in the same area. On the other band, literary researches have gone some way
to establishing the legitimacy of investigating what people atc, particularly by
establishing sound texts of manuscript materials. The primary sources – recipe
collections, early treatises about food, cookery, the properties of foodstuffs –
are gradually being made available for scholarly study. Increasingly, researchers
are in a position to examine the nature of early eating customs, and to show
both the immediate causes and the latent consequences of those habits.
For several years now the annual Congress on Medieval Studies, organized
by the Center for Medieval Sturlies at Western Michigan University, has sponsored
a session on „Foods in the European Middle Ages“, a ·session which I
have been very honoured to organize. The Congress attracts a !arge number
of medievalists who find there a good representation of the variety of research
c urrently pursued by the world’s scholars. Participants who havc attended
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the session on „Foods“ in the past have heard presentions on seasoning from
a rcsearcher frorn lndia, on the genre of the dietetic Ietter from a Canadian,
and on food in hunting treatises from an American. In May of this year the
three speakers (John 0. Fudge, Edinburgh University: „Supply and Distribution
of Foodstufl’s in Northern Europe“ ; Mary Frances Zambreno, University of
Chicago: „The Moral Ambiguity of the Medieval Feast“; and Liliane Plou vier,
University of Brussels: „La confiserie europeenne au Moyen Age“) continued
to illustrate the basic dichotomy between the approaches to the subject of medieval
food. However, the speakers demonstrated as weil, i n the discussions
that followed their papers, just how fruitful, how mutually illuminating, the
combination of these two approaches, historical and literary, can be. Those
interested in the field of historic food can take heart that, with the continued
contribution of such researchers, full academic recognition of their interests
must soon come.
Terence Scully
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MEDIUM AEVUM
QUOTIDIAN UM
newsletter 13
Krems 1988
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidiamun. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters. Körnermarkt 13, A-3500, Ösl(rreich. ·- Für den lnhult verantwortlich
zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck,
auch in Auszügen, nicht gestaltet ist. – Herstellung: Druck & Kopie Wille • Tel. 587 97 12
Inhaltsverzeichnis/ Contents
Editor’s Preface 4
Terence Scully: Studies in Medieval Food 6
John D. Fudge: Supply and Distribution of Foodstuffs
in Northern Europe 1450-1500 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Mary Frances Zambreno: The Moral Ambiguity of the
Medieval Feast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Liliane Plouvier: La confiserie europeenne au Moyen Age 28
Berichte – Besprechungen – M itteilungen 48
Adressenverzeichnis der Autoren 59
Editor’s Preface
The present volume of Medium A evum Quotidianum-Newsletter is an indirect
result of the editor’s participation at the 23rd International Congress on Medieval
Sturlies at Kalamazoo this May. Among the numerous other papers
delivered there, which have been relevant for historians of material culture and
daily life of the Middle Ages, my attention was particularly drawn to a session
on medieval food organized by Terence Scully from the Department of
French Language and Literature of Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario.
Terence Scully is one of the few specialists on medieval food and cooking
in North America and weil known for his editions of French cookery books and
recipe collections ( cf., e. g., „Du fait de cuisine par M aistre Chiquart 1420“,
Val/e$ia 40, 1985, 130-231; Chiquart 1$ On Cooleery. A Fifteenth-Century Savoyard
Culinary Treatüe. New York, Berne, Frankfurt/M., 1986; The V iandier
of Taillevent, to be published this October by the University of Ottawa Press).
For several years now, he has been organizing sessions on „Foods in the European
Middle Ages“ at Kalamazoo.
When I offered Terence Scully and the speakers of his session – John D.
Fudge, Mary Frauces Zambreno and Liliane Plouvier- to publish the papers in
Medium Aevum Quotidianum-Newsletter, they all immediately accepted. By
that, we get the opportunity to be quickly informed about some important new
research. I would like to thank the authors, particularly for their readiness to
send their manuscripts in such a short time after the conference, in spite of
their many other obligations.
This Newsletter 13 will soon be followed by Newsletter 14, which is dedicated
to the conference „Mensch und Objekt im M ittelalter. Leben – Alllag –
Kultur“, organized by Medium A evum Quotidianum and the Institut für mittelalterliche
Realienkunde Österreichs, taking place in Krems from September
27 to 30, 1988. As in the years 1984 and 1986, we would like to present summaries
of the papers delivered at the conference to inform our members about
the main topics and aspects to be discussed.
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Two gucst editors will be responsible for Newsletter 15. Grethe Jacobsen
and Jens Christian Johansen, both from Copenhagen, have agreed to edit thc
volume, which will be dealing with the research on daily life and material
culture of the Middle Ages in Denrnark. It will be the first of the already
announced volumes concerning research in particular countries. We hope that
this newsletter will be published at the end of 1988.
For 1989, we already have started the preparations for two volumes continuing
our select bibliographies. One volume will be devoted to medieval dress,
the other to medieval ships. We also plan an updated version of the general
select bibliography, which was published as Medium Aevum QuotidianumNewsletter
7/8 in 1986. Numerous new books and articles have come out since
then; a second edition seems to be necessary.
At last, I would like to thank those members of our society who have been
– some of them continuously – contributing to Medium A evum QuotidianumNewsletter.
All others, I again would like to invite to send us articles, reviews,
notes or announcements.
Gerhard Jaritz, editor
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