„Unus theutonicus plus bibit quam duo latini“: Food and Drink in Late Medieval Germany1
MELITTA WEISS ADAMSON
(T H E UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ÜNTARlO)
Most medieval cookbooks of Western Europe that have come down to us contain a more or less structured collection of culinary recipes but little or no information on the food eaten in certain regions, the reputation a certain cuisine had in other parts of the continent, or what the upper dass thought of lower d s food, and vice versa. Such information can, however, sometimes be found in medieval medical texts on nutrition. In the following I will examine the medieval dietetic Iiterature from Anthimus‘ sixth-century dietetic Ietter in vulgar Latin to the sixteenth-century dietetic treatises in German of Walther Ry and Hieronymus Bock, in an attempt to outline German cuisine and its reputation in medieval and early-modern Europe.
From Caesar’s De Bello Gallico we le that Germanie tribes lived mainly on , cheese, and meat, and that primitive tribes at the mouth of the Rhine ate sh and birds‘ eggs.2 And in his Ge aniaTacitus describes the eating and drinking habits of the Germ s as follows:
„22 . . . after washing they take a meal, seated apart, each at his own table: then, arms in hand, they proceed to business, or, just as often, to revelry. To out-drink the day and night is a reproach to no man: brawls are equent, naturally, among heavy drinkers: they seldom terminate with abuse, more often in wounds and bloodshed; …
23 For drink they use the liquid distilled om barley or wheat, after fermentation h given it a certain resemblance to wine. The tribes
1 Extended version of a paper deliv ed at the Medieval Congre$S, Leeds, J y 1995.
2 „Agri culturae non student, maiorque pars eorum victus in lacte, caseo, c e consistit.“ (De Bello Gallico, VI,22); „… pars magna a feris barbarisque nationibus incolitur, ex quibus sunt, qui piscibus atque ovis avium viv e existimantur, …“ (De Bello Gallico, IV,lO).
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nearest the river also buy wine. Their diet is simple: wild fruit, fresh venison, curdled milk .. . „3
The high-fat and high-cholesterol diet mentioned by Caesar and the ex cessive drinking of a beer-like substance as described by Tacitus, are in stark cantrast to the Roman cuisine of the time, which was based on wine and sh-stock.4 Meat, sh, and vegetables were usually eaten with strong tasting sauces which were often based on olive-oil, vinegar, and mustard. Among the wide range of acidi ers used by the Romans were de utum, which is reduced must, passum, a raisin wine, mulsum, a mixture of white wine and honey, and moretum, a marinade for salads which contained liqua men, also known as garum, the Romans‘ most favorite seasoning.5 A salty mixture of sh-intestines and spices, liquamen was so popular that it was produced in factories. It was probably similar in taste to the anchovie-paste sold today.
Some of the earllest comments on German food following those of Cae sar and Tacitus are included in Anthimus‘ dietetic letter entitled De Ob servatione Cibo m.6 Anthimus, a physician expelled from Constantinople about 477-478, and caught in the power struggle between Eastern Goths and ankish Goths, wrote the letter, which he dedicated to Theodoric,
3 „22 . . . lauti cibum capiunt: separatae singulis sedes et sua cuique mensa. tum ad negotia nex minus saepe ad convivia procedunt armati. diem noctemque continuare potando nulli probrum. crebrae, ut inter vinolentos, rixae conviciis, saepius caede et vulneribus transiguntur … 23 Potui humor ex hordeo aut frumento, in quandam similitudinem vini corruptus: proximi ripae et vinum mercantur. cibi simplices, agrestia poma, recens fera aut lac concretum“: Latin text and English translation contained in Tacitus, Dialogus, Agricola, Germania. The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, and London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1963), 295, 297.
4 l\1ary Ella Milham, ed., Apicii Decem Libri Qvi Dicvntvr De Re Coqvinaria Et Excerpta A Vinidario Conscripta (Leipzig: Teubner, 1969).
5 Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, On Agriculture and Trees, recens. and trans. by E. S. Forster and Edward H. He ner, 3 vols. (London: William Heinemann: 1955), vol. III. defrutum (228-241), passum (264-269), mulsum (268-271 ) , moretu (334-339); see also Chapter IV: Sauces in Ilaria Gozzini Giacosa, A Taste of Ancient Rome (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 26-48.
6 Eduard Lichtenhan, ed., Anthimi De observatione ciborum ad Theodoricum regem Franeorum epistula (Berlin: Akademi Verlag, 1963).
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between 5 1 1 and 534.7 There are nine extant manuscripts of the vulgar Latin text and one fteenth-century German translation.8 In his introduc tion he contemplates such questions as „why are there tribes that eat raw and bloody meat or only milk and meat, sometimes even lacking drink for Ionger periods of time, and still they remain healthy?“ He concludes that a society which uses a wide variety of food such as his own has to be more watchful to eat the right amount and the right selection of food.9 While he may be alluding to Germanie tribes in this passage, he clearly singles out the Frankish people when he discusses the dietetic qualities of bacon. According to Anthimus, when bacon is roasted and the fat removed, it be comes dry and harmful to the body. It leads to bad humors and digestive disorder. When boiled and eaten cold, it is good for the body and ghts con stipation. Fried bacon should not be eaten, but lard poured over meat and vegetables when oil is not av lable, is acceptable. Anthimus then points out that the anks love raw bacon, which is good for the intestines, drives away ring and tape worms, and that is why the Franks are healthier than other peoples, even using fat bacon for dressing wounds.10
7 See Lichtenhan, IX; G. M. Messing, „Remarks on Anthimus de obseruatione ciborum,“ Cla3sical Philo/ogy 37 (1942), 151.
8 Description of the extant MSS in Lichtenban (1963), XXIV; a transcription of the Ger man translation in Cod. Vind.2898, fol. 77va-80rb, is included in Melitta Weiss Adamson, Medieval Dietetic3: Food and Drink in Regimen Sanitatü Literature from 800 to 1400 (Frankfurt am Main/Berlin/Bern/New York/Paris/Vienna: Peter Lang, 1995), 207-215.
9 „… „‚quare gentes alias crudioris carnis manducant et sanguinolentas et sani sunt?‘ … illi unum cibum manducant sicut lupi, nam non multus, quia non habent nisi carnis et lactis et ipsud, quod habuerint, manducant, et uidentur esse sani de paucitate ciborum. nam de potu est, quando habent, est, quando longo tempore non habent, et paucitas ipsa uidetur ipsis sanitatem praestare. nam nos, qui diuersis cibis et diuersis diliciis et diuersis poculis nos agimus, necesse habemus nos gubernare taliter, ut non pro nimietate auemur, sed magis parcius agentes sanitatem obtene us.“ Lichtenhan, 3.
10 „De laredo uero, unde non est, qualiter exire dilicias ancorum, tamen, qualiter melius comedatur, ad hora expono. si assatum fuerit hora quomodo bradonis, pin gu en ipsum de uit in foco et laredus deueniet siccus, ut, qui manducauerit, laeditur, n non iuuatur; eti et malus humoris generat et indigestionem facit. sed elixatum laredum et re igeratum si manducatur, melius iuuat et uentrem constrictum temperat et bene digeritur…. ixum uero laredum penitus non praesumendum, quia satis nocet. pin gu en ipsius laredi, quod in cibo aliquo supermissum fuerit uel super olera, ubi oleum non fuerit, non nocet; … Decrudo uero laredo, quod solent, ut audio, domni Franci
10
De Observatione Ciborum is one of the rare treatises belonging to the Pre-Arabist Period, the centuries before translations of Greco-Arabic medi cal texts ooded Europe and became the textbooks at the newly constituted medical schools of Salerno, �ontpellier, Paris, Bologna and others. Among the German students attending F’rench and Italian medical schools are Kon rad von Eichstätt and Arnold von Bamberg, who put together their own dietetic manuals based on the regimen-literature of Avicenna, Rhazes, and Averroes.11 Originally compiled in Latin, these regimens were later trans lated into German and circulated widely. Occasionally we nd comments in these texts which give away the German background of the compilers, and o er us glimpses of what in the fourteenth and fteenth centuries were con sidered typical German eating and drinking habits. B ed on Avicenna’s Canon medicinae, Rhazes‘ Liber de medicina ad Almansorem, and Aver roes‘ Colliget, Konrad’s Regimen sanitatis became the matrix for many German regime . In the section on legu nous plants, Konrad provides the German equivalents of such Latin terms as atriplices (maltem), bleta ( mangalt oder piezzen) and malva (pape�; 12 and in the general section on food and drink he makes the comment which I have used in my title „unus theutonicus plus bibit quam duo latini.“ The context in which this state ment occurs is the following: „About the region you should know that a
eomedere, miror satis, quis illis ostendit talem medieinam, ut non opus habeant alias medieinas, qui sie erudum illut mandueant, quia bene cium grandem et pro antidotus sanitatem illis praestat, bene eio ipsius quia ita omnia uiseera quomodo medieamentum bonum, et si qua uitia sunt in uiseeribus uel intestinis, per ipso sanatur, et si lumbriei uel tineae adn tae fuerint, expellit hoe. nam et uentrem temperat et, quod illis melius est, per isto eibo sanioris ab aliis sunt. n ut exemplum magnum dicatur, ut eredatur, quae diximus: tota uulnera quae foris et in eorpore nata fuerint uel de plaga faeta, lare dum erassum adpositum adsidue et purgat putridinem uulneris illius et sanat. sie enim et ad interior uiseera poterit prodesse, sieut superius diximus. eeee quale bene eium in laredo crudo, ut, quod mediei in medie entis uel potionibus temptant sanare uel inplastris uulnera curare, de laredo erudo Franei sanantur.“ Lichtenhan, 8-10.
11 Christa Hagenmeyer, D Regimen Sanitatis Kon d von Eich3tätt: Quellen-Texte Wirkung3ge3chichte (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1995); for this study the MS Mu nich, Bayerische St tsbibliothek, C 12389, fol. 256ra-274rb, will be used; Arnold von B berg’s Tractatus de regimine Mnitatü is edited in Karin Figal , „Mainfränkische Zeitgenossen ‚Ortolfs von Baierland‘: Ein Beitrag zum frühesten Gesundheitswesen in
12 Clm 12389, fol. 272va-273ra.
den Bistümern Würzburg und B berg“ (pharm. diss. Munich 1969), 160-190.
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cold region endures a lot of wine, but hot ones very little, and therefore a German drinks more than two mediterranean people.“13 It is particularly interesting to see how translators of Konrad’s treatise dealt with this pas sage. In the Ordnung der Gesundheit, written for Rudolf von Hohenberg, we read: „In a cold country or in cold times it is healthier to drink a lot of wine than in warm lands or in warm seasons, because wine heats you and is good against the cold of the land or the season.“14 Pseudo-Ortolf, in his translation of Konrad’s regimen, which is called Regimen vite, is much less discreet about the drinking habits of the Germans: „You should know that people who are of a cold disposition can drink more wine. But those who are of a hot disposition, cannot drink as much. Hence one German drinks more than two latins.“15 Apart from the fact that land is here incorrectly translated as nature/disposition, it appears as if the two translations were aimed at two di erent audiences. In the Ordnung der Gesundheit, dedicated to a nobleman, references which could have been regarded as o ensive to the German aristocracy were deleted. Hence, suggesting that Germany was a land of coholics was inappropriate and therefore omitted. Equ ly re pulsive to the nobility must have been Konrad’s statement concerning the digestion of coarse bread by the peasants, the socalled rustici. In Kon rad’s regimen we are told that meat is easier to digest than bread, and that „Bran bread is more easily digested than fine and pure bread such as white bread. Therefore the rustics have coarser emissions than those using white bread.“16 Not surprisingly, the Ordnung der Gesundheit omits this
13 „De regimine sci , quod regio frigida multum tollerat de vino, sed c ida minime. Et ideo unus theutonicus plus bibit quam duo latini.“ (MS Clm 12389, fol. 260va-vb).
14 “ einem kalten land oder zu kalten czeiten ist gesuntlicher vil weins ze trincken, denn in warmen landen oder czti warmen czeiten, wann der wein hytz und ist gesunt wider die kelten des Iandes oder der czeit.“ in Christa Hagenmeyer, „Die ‚Ordnung der Gesundheit‘ Rudolf von Hohenberg: Untersuchungen zur diätetischen Fachprosa des Spätmittelalt s mit kritischer Textausgabe“ {diss. Heidelberg, 1972), 305.
15 „lr s lt wissen welche leiit kalter natur sein mer mügen erleiden weins zetrincken. aber die heysser natur seind die mügen sein so vil nit trincken. dauon trincket ein teütscher mer weins wann zwen walhen.“ Pseudo-Ortolf, Regimen vite, in DM Arzneibuch Ortolfs von Baierland (Augsburg: Anton Sorgs, 1479), fol. 61v.
16 „Scias etiam, quod panis cum suo furfure velocius descendit et digeritur quam panis cribellatus et purus sicut simila. Et ideo rustici grossiores egestiones emittunt quam pane albo utentes.“ (MS Clm 12389, fol. 259ra).
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passage, while Pseudo-Ortolf dwells on it: „You should know that bread with its bran is more easily digested than ne or wheat bread. Hence the peasant is healthier than the lord d cleans his stomach more thoroughly than his lord.“ 17 This statement which is as much a dietetic as it is a social comment, is reminiscent of Anthimus‘ words of caution regarding rich and varied cuisines. In the actual section on bread Pseudo-Ortolf teils of the various types of bread which are recommended for old people and children. They include brot pretzen, ho a en und manig sch6n mnß altten und den kinden.18
Another fourteenth-century German physician who put together a Latin regimen in Konrad’s tradition is Arnold von Bamberg. His dietetic treatise is remarkable because it contains forty culinary recipes and is the first German dietetic text which mentions Europe’s favorite upper d s dish called blanc manger (blantmaser).19 It also makes repeated reference to foods eaten in certain parts of Europe, in particular Germany. In his section on fruit he tells us that various dishes can be prepared from tree fruit. He then gives three recipes which he claims are popular in Germany:
„Take apples, clean them inside and out, cut them in pieces, fry them in good lard, and serve. Simply fried or boiled they taste quite good, too. Dried grapes boiled in almond milk are another good dish. Dried gs that are good and thick boiled in water or almond milk can be served as well.“20
17 „Du solt auch wissen das brot mit sein kleyen sich ee hinunder senckt vnd dewet das brot daz gebewtelt ist oder weytzen brot. dauon ist der pawer gesünder dann der herr vnnd rbet vil reyner seinenn magen dann den herren.“ (Regimen vite, fol. 59v).
18 Ibid., fol. 67v. 19TheingredientsforthefortyculinaryrecipesarelistedinAdamson,155-158. Around 1300, bl nc mangerwas rst mentioned in a German literary text, called Der Renner by Hugo von Trimberg: „Manie geb r wirt schimelgra, I Der selten hat gezzen mensier bla, I Vigen, h sen, mandelkern.“ (vv. 9813-9815), quoted in George Fenwick Jones, „The Function of Food in Mediaeval German Literature,“ Speculum 35 (1960), 83.
20 „De fructibus autem arborum cunt etiam aliquando fercula et maxime in alamania, quae possunt eti comedi sua hora, accipiuntur poma et mundantur interius et exterius et inciduntur in frustra et frixantur in sagimine bono et ministrantur; valent etiam ali quando simpliciter assata vel cocta. Item uve passe decoquuntur bene in lacte amigdali et t unum ferculum. Item cus sicce bone et pingues decoquuntur in aqua simplici vel in lacte amigdali et postea ministrantur, …“ Figala, 168.
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\Vhen he talks about deer, he turns to Albertus Magnus as his source, and mentions the dietetic qualities of ibex. whose Latin name he does not know and therefore substitutes it with the German stainbochi.21 In connection with cheese Arnold provides a little recipe and adds that it is frequently used in Germany.The recipe calls for cheese cooked in water and eaten with good bread, not a fancy dish by any means.22 Finally, under freshwater sh he lists the perch, which is supposedly called in theutonico za iz et zint, and which he praises as healthy food.23
Based on this brief survey of medieval dietetic literature, it would ap pear as if fourteenth-century Germansdrank a lot of wine, ate white bread if they were upper dass, and coarse bran bread if they were peasants, pret zels and gruel if they were very young or old, enjoyed cheese-soup and uit-dishes, blanc manger, perch, and ibex. In the texts I have examined so far, references to Germany are few and far between. This changes when we Iook at the dietetic literature of the sixteenth century. Although Hip pocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Rhazes and Averroes are still the main sources used for sixteenth-century compilations, references now abound which ad dress German cuisine and eating habits. Walther Ry ’s dietetic treatise printed in Würzburg in 1549 is a good example of the „new“ dietetic liter ature which conveys a strong sense of national identity. The emphasis on Germany already becomes apparent in the long title, in which Ry char acterizes his book as a „description of the nature, quality, power, virtue, e ect, right preparation and use of food and drink . . . used daily by us Ger mans.“24 In the text the foodstu s e arranged alphabetically following
21 „ltem stainbochi iuvenes sunt boni,“ Figala, 172.
22 „… sed si ipse incompetenti quantitate decoquatur in aqua et eius virtus bene expri matur cum cocleari ad eandem aquam, tune dicta aqua cum bono pane bonus est cibus et confortatus et valde usitatus in alamania.“ Figala, 175.
23 Figala, 176.
24 Guualterus H. Rivius (Walther Ry ), Kurtze aber va3t eigentliche I nutzliehe vnd in p egung der ge3tmdheyt notwendige be3chreibung I der natur I eigerucha I Kra I
Tugent I Wirckung I rechten Bereyttung vnd gebrauch I inn speyß vnd dranck I aller deren st ck so vns zu zeytlicher vnd leyblicher erhaltung I Speyß vnd drancks von n6ten I vnd bey vns Teutschen inn teglichem Gebrauch 3ind I etc. (Würzburg: Johan Myller, 1549).
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their Latin terms.25 When I analyzed the contents of Ry ’s book, I cate gorized the information as follows: 1) upper-class food; 2) lower-class food; 3) food for all dasses; 4) food in various regions of Germany; 5) foreign and imported foods; 6) social criticism and 7) information on the author and his intended audience.
Upper-class foods according to Ry are asparagus (Asparagus), venison (Ceruorum ca es), chickpeas (Cicer), pigeons (Columbulorum caro), saf fron (Crocus), cranes (Gruum carnes), bares (Leporum ca es), peacocks (Pauonum caro) and pheasants (Phasiani). With the exception of chick peas, which are favored by rich people in Alsace, and sa on, of which we are told that it is also cultivated in Germ y, but nevertheless is quite ex
pensive, all the remaining foodstu s are venison and fowl. The author is extremely critical of the upper-class habit of eating excessive amounts of deer which, he daims, creates a melancholic humor and is di cult to digest, and ofthe German habit ofhunting cranes not just for their beautiful feath ers but for their meat as well. Peacocks, likewise, are not safe from being processed in the kitchen, although their meat is very tough and harmful to the body. Pheasants, according to Ry , are less harmful, but he adds „let’s ce it, a good, fat capon is as tasty as a pheasant, and if prepared in the same way, can be much tastier.“26 Of social signi cance is the author’s comment on bares, and their quality as diet food for people who want to lose weight. This clearly marks it as upper-class fare, since the lower classes were regular victims of wars and famines, and can hardly be assumed to have been overweight.27
The foodstu s which Ry identi es as lower-class are garlic (Allium, also used by all classes) , oats (Avena), cabbage ( Brassica), chestnuts ( Cas tane ), beans (Fab ), millet (Milium), and turnip (Rapa). Oats, we are told, are eaten by the clumsy Suabians, Bavarians in Allgäu, and peasants in the form of gruel. It is considered to be coarse food for rough people, has cooling and stiptic qualities, and is generally bad for you. Millet is described
25 Since the book Iacks pagination, the Latin names of the foodstu s will be given in brackets in lieu of page-references.
26 „Doch so wir ye die Warheyt bekennen wollen I so mag ein guter feister Capon einem yeden Fasan I inn disem allen gleichen I vnd bey weilen wo sie gleichlieh bereyt werden I vbertre en.“ (Ry , Phasiani).
27
… ist masten vnd feisten leuthen I die gern mager werden wolten ein vast n tzliche
“
speiß . . .“ (Ry , Leporum carnes).
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in a si lar way and is eaten by cr tspeople and peasants. Cabbage, Ry points out, is used all over Germany. In the kitchen of the common peo ple, esp. craftspeople, it is used daily, and in Bavaria people eat cabbage or Sauerkraut three to four times a day as a meal. Needless to say, it is bad for you, causing melancholic, thick blood. Chestnuts, eaten a lot in Graubünden, in today’s Switzerland, is peasant food. In times of fa ne it is ground and baked into bread. Beans are a coarse food for hard-working people, and turnip is the food of craftspeople and peasants. Pickled in vine gar and salt it provokes one’s appetite. lt is also cooked with fatty beef or butter.
Foodstu s used by classes are the herbs and spices dill (Anethum), parsley (Apium Hortense), borage (Borrogo), c away (Careum), onion (Cep ), garlic (Allium), cinnamon (Cinamomum),coriander (Coriand m), pepper (Piper), ginger (Zinziber), and mustard (Sinapi); the uits cher ries ( Ceras ia), apples (Mala), medlars (Mespila) and pears (Pira); the nuts almonds (Amigdala) and (wal-)nuts (Nvces); the vegetables silver beet (Beta), lettuce (Lactuca), leek (Porrum), and radish (Radicul ); the mea of kid ( Hoedorum ca es) and pigs (Pvrcus); the fowl goose ( A nser), chicken ( Gallin ) and partridge (Perdicum caro); the fats butter and lard
(Bvtirum); the liquids milk (Lac), wine (Vinum) and beer (Zythus); the sweetener honey (Me�, as well as eggs (Ova) and salt (Sa�. As the most popular foodstu s the author names apples and eggs which, he says, would ll separate cookbooks. Piglets, pork and bacon are praised and the Ger man love for Sülze, aspic, made from pigs‘ feet. Chicken is in general use and is a healthy foodstu . The comments on butter are particularly revealing:
„Butter is in our German kitchen so essential that one does not want to cook soup from water, since we Germans have the habit that all our food h to oat in fat, therefore we are called – which is partly justi ed – Grass Alemant by the Latins.28
Milk is described by the author as the foodstu underlying all human life,
and beer as a delicious, healthy drink consumed by Germans, esp. in the summer, and as an antidote to drunkenness [sie!). Food used only in cer tain areas of Germany include aniseed (Anisum) popular in Speyer and
28 „Der Butter ist inn vnseren Teutschen Küchin also notwendig I daz man on den selbigen nicht wol ein wasser Suppen zu richten mö t I dann wir Teutschen den brauch haben I das alle vnsere kost in feistigkeyt schwimmen muß I dar wir zum teyl nicht vnbillich von den Welschen I Graß Alemant genant werden.“ (Ry , Bvtirum).
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Strasbourg, chamois ( Capre caro) in the mountainous regions, chickpeas ( Cicer) in Alsace, and a red variety of carrots (Pastinac ) araund Stras bourg.
Frequently we hear about foods eaten in foreign countries or imported to Germany. Aniseed is used by Latin wetnurses and mothers because it increases milk production, capers (Capparis) are imported to Germany pick led in vinegar and oil or in salt water, and are recommended for salads. Dry figs (Caric ) come in two kinds, black, and small white ones called Mar silia gs. Lemons (Citra), called Judenäpfel because of their yellow color, were not much used, Ry maintains, with oranges (Pomerantzen) and limes (Limonen) being more popular. Damsons (Damascena) are imported from Bohemia, France, Hungary and the Mediterranean, and cu n (Cvminum) was consumed a lot in the Netherlands. A comment in connection with pomegranates (Mala punica) tells us that attempts were made to cultivate foreign foodstu s in Germany with varying success (pomegranates, gs, saf fron). Olive oil (Oleum commune) is known in Germany but rarely used. Rice (Oriza) is popular with the Germans but has to be imported, Ry stresses. Carrots (Pastinac ) create urin, lust, and indigestion, esp. when eaten raw as people in the Low Countries do. Peaches (Persica), originating
from Persia, are a common fruit in Germany, while pine nuts (Pinei Nu clei), a foreign type of nuts, are used in drugs and dishes, esp. confections. Raisins ( Vve pass ) have to be imported because of the cold weather and the rains in Germany. Carob beans (Xylocerata) are imported from across
the sea, they are cheap and given to children as treats.
Ry ’s dietetic treatise is particularly rich in social commentary and criticism. In addition to upper- and lower-class foods he discusses epi cureism, cannibalism, medicine, water pollution, and above all alcoholism. Hempseed (Canabis Semen) and chestnuts (Castane ) tempt him to re mark that people become increasingly „schleckerhaft“, they become epi cures. They stu geese, chickens and ducks with chestnuts, and make hemp soup, thereby depriving the forest birds of their sustenance. Cannibalism is mentioned in connection with pork (Pvrcus) which supposedly tastes like human esh, attested by people who are victims of famine or occupation. In connection with freshwater sh (Pisces) he warns that one should not buy sh caught in those parts of the river where faeces and dirt are dumped. His main criticism is, however, directed against alcohol abuse, although he does provide various recipes considered as antidotes to inebriation. Vinegar
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(Acetum), for instance, mixed with water helps „the Polish pigs and booz ers“ ,29 bitter almonds ( Amigdala) eaten before a night of drinking, cabbage (Brassica) to ght hangover, and sa ron ( Crocus) is used in the Strasbourg pubs o make a sauce which covers up the taste of rotten meat. 30 Needless to say, Ry is torn when it comes to the bene ts of wine ( Vinum) which since Hippocrates h been regarded medicine. On the one band he praises wine as being healthy, t ty, and making people happy. On the other, when consumed in excess, „as is our German habit“, he adds, it leads to heart at tack, trembling, it destroys the brain, reason and feeling, and turns people into idiots.31
Ry ’s book, though dedicated to princes and to Bisbop Melchior of Würzburg, addresses a middle dass audience of „conscientious and careful householders, esp. those in market places, c tles, villages, and in the coun tryside.“32 A much larger dietetic treatise incorporating all the knowledge on nutrition from the ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Europeans up to the sixteenth century, was compiled by Hieronymus Bock. It was pub lishedinStr bourgin 1550andentitledDeutscheSpeißkammer(„German larder“).33 It, too, contains a considerable amount of criticism, esp. when it comes to such socially and culturally signi cant foodstu s bread and
29 „… der Polnischen sew oder trunckenboltz sonderliche Artzney…“ (Ry , Acetum).
30 This statement is puzzling if one considers that sa ron was by far the most expensive spiee – in the fteenth century as much as seven times more expensive than pepper!
31 „… So man aber des Weins wolte zuuil vnmessig trincken I nach vnserem Teutschen brauch I so schwecht I krenckt I bricht I vnd zerstöret er I die rechte natürlich leiblich kra t I vntertrückt die natürliche werme I erstecket vnd erleschet sie I ist ein anreitzung des grossen Schlags oder Apoplexi I vnd auch vnterweilen der schweren erschreck chen plag I der fallenden Sucht I macht den gantzen Leib zitteren vnd beben I vnd erlament alle Glyder I dann dem gantzen Ieib I seine kre t vnd macht dardurch benomen werden. Aber allen dingen I wird von vnmessigen trincken I das Hirn I Vernun t I Sin vnd
Gedechtnus he tig verletzet I vnnd hart beschedigt I inn allen jren wirckungen I darumb gemeiniglichen die grossen Wein sau et I dolle vnd dün an den Esel sind I aller Sinn I Witz vnnd Vernun t beraubt.“ (Ry , Vinum).
32 „.. . von eißsigen vnd fursichtigen Haußhaltern I furnemlichen denen I welche in Marckten I schlößseren dör e vnd feldt sitzen I oder wonung sich erhalten I welchen wir furnemlichen dises Corpus der Medicin zu nutz vnd trost gesteilet haben etc. …“ ( R , Acetum).
33 Hieronymus Bock, Teutsche Speißkammer. lnn welcher du ndest I W gesunden vnnd kranncken menschen zur Leibsnarung vnd desselben gepresten von n6ten I Auch
18
wine. After listing the references to bread in the Bible and in Pliny,34 Bock goes on to discuss the di erent grains used in Germany for making bread. His rhetorical talent becomes particularly evident when he switches from the breads eaten by the common people to the use of bread as dogfood. The nobility is said to feed their hunting dogs Hundbrot, and the rich clergy even superior Tafel- oder Tellerbrot.35 The author then abruptly turns to famines, the hoarding of grain by the rich, and the desperate attempts of the poor to merely stay alive.36 Although the author’s attitude towards the upper dass in times of famine is highly critical, he does maintain that the fni e white bread called Herren Brot is unsuitable for workers such as lumberjacks and charcoal-burners in the Westerwald.37
In the chapter on wine, Bock fri st speaks ofthe German habit of drink ing wine with every meal, a practice already recommended by Dioscorides. lJnfortunately, this has given Germany the reputation of being a land of boozers, the authors deplores.38 om St. Urban, the patron saint of wine growers venerated in Germany, the author goes on to list the prime wine growing regions which include Alsace, Wallis, and the banks of the Rhine, Main, Neckar, Mosel, Danube, and Etsch.39 Beverages such as Defrutum, Mulsum, and Passum, which were an integral part of Roman cuisine, are
wie alle 3pei3 vnd dranck Gesunden vnd Krancken jederzeitzur Ko3t vnd artznei gerei chet werden ollen (Strasbourg: Wendel Rihel, 1550).
34 Bock, fol. 4lr-43v.
35 „In den herren h6fen gibt man gemelt brot den jaghunden. In den reichen Klöstern haben die Prelaten auch jre jagerei vnnd hund I au welche nit geringer kosten gehet I die speißt man mit T el oder Tellerbrot.“ (Bock, fol. 43v-44r).
36 „Ich hab in der thewrung gesehen I das arme leüt hasel zap en I Bonen I Linsen I Fäselen vnd danneo sagmal vnder andere frucht Iiessen malen I darmit sie sich des hungers erwehren k nten. Aber seer vnwillig warden sie vber die reichen I das sie kein frucht vmbs gelt den armen wolten lassen werden.“ (Bock, fol. 44r).
37 „Das best Herren Brot Wvrt auß dem aller zartesten weiss mal I z Latin Pollis genant I gebachen I dienet nicht für die holtzhawer vnd kolen brenner im Westerwald.“ (Bock, fol. 44v).
38 „Wir Teütschen achten kein malzeit I wann nit wein darbei ist I für köstlich I danneo her wir ins geschrei kommen I das man vns die vollen vnnd tollen Teütschen thut schelten. Gerad als wer sonst kein ander Nation vnder der Sonnen I darinn man truncken würd…“ (Bock, fol. 47r).
39 „… wir Teütschen singen von g tten kü.len weinen I so in dem Elsaß I Rheinstrom 19
described by Bock as medicinal and upper dass drinks.40 The author’s re marks on who should or should not drink wine show that by 1550 wine had ceased to be a drink for aristocrats or special occasions. As Bock puts it:
„Whoever can pay for it, can drink wine in Germany, be it master or farm-hand, aristocrat or not, monk and priest, nun and beguine, bourgeois and peasant, women and virgins, taU and short, whores and boys, beggars and lepers …“41
Judging from the diedetic Iiterature exa ned here, it would appear as if Caesar and Tacitus were not so far o , when they characterized German food as being meat, sh, eggs, milk, and cheese.42 In the sixteenth century these are still the staples of the Germans, to which must be added bread, butter, apples, grapes, cabbage, turnips, salt, and pepper. With German forests in the medieval era more and more giving way to elds, the hunting of wild anim s bec e the privilege of the aristocracy. As a consequence, venison was gradually replaced by the meat of domestic animals such as beef, pork, lamb, and chicken as the meat for the masses. \Vine, introduced to the Germans by the Romans, was the drink of choice of the aristocracy and rich bourgeoisie for most of the Middle Ages, but by the sixteenth century was accessible to everybody who could ord it regardless of social status.
IRinckgawI MeynI NeckerIanderMoselIanderThunawIinderEtschI im land z Wallis I vnd an vmbligenden Örtern gep antzt werden.“ (Bock, fol. 48r).
40 „Sapa I Calenum I Defrutum I Mulsum vnnd Passum I seind gekochte gesottene wein I gehören in die Apotecken vnd herren kuchen I daselbst weiß man sie z gebrauchen.“ (Bock, fol. 49r).
41 „Wers vermag vnd z bezalen hat I der selb drincke wein im Teütschen land I er sei herr oder knecht I Edel oder onedel I Münch vnd Pfa en I Nunnen vnd Begein I Burger vnd Bawren I vnnd junckfrawen I groß vnd klein I Hftren vnnd B ben I Betler d Außsetzige I “ (Bock, fol. 49v).
42 Based on his study of medieval German cookbooks, Helmut Birkhan recently argued that “ . . . the medieval cuisine of Central Europe represents the remn ts of barbar ian cooking, rather than a continuation of antique cuisine …“, see „Some Remarks on Medieva! Cooking: The Ambras Recipe Collection of Cod. Vind. 5486,“ in Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays, ed. by Melitta Weiss Adamson (New YorkiLondon: Garland Publishing Inc., 1995), 95.
20
MED IUM AEVU M QUOTIDIANUM
33
KREMS 1995
HERAUSGEGEBEN VON GERHARD JARITZ
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER KULTURABTEILUNG DES AMTES DER NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Titelgraphik Stephan J. amer
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiel len Kultur des Mittelalters. Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems, Österreich. – F den halt verantwortlich zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck, auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist. – Druck: KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A-1050 Wien.
Vorwort
Inhaltsverzeichnis
7 many 8
GE RHARD JA RITZ, Spiritual Materiality or �aterial Spiri-
tuality. Cistercian Inventories of the Late Middle Ages …. … ….. 21
SAXDOR PETENYI, Von den Dilgen ….. . … .. . . .. …….. . .. … . . 28 RYSZARD GRZESIK, The European �oti in the Polish �e-
dievalChronicles …………………………………………. 41 EDWARD SKIBIXSKI, The Image of Women in the Polish
ChronicleofMasterVincent(calledKadlubek) ……………….. 54 PIOTR BERING, Das Publikum der Elegienkomödie und der
�ELITTA WEISS ADAMSON, „Unus theutonicus plus bibit quam duo latini“: Food and Drink in Late Medieval Ger-
humanistischen Komödie im spätmittelalterlichen Polen
RE ZE SIONEN:
HELGA ScHÜPPERT, Aktuelles zum Hexenthema
…. .. . .. .. 63 7 0
7 0
Eine Stadt der auen. Studien und Quellen zur Geschichte
der Baslerinnen im späten Mittelalter und zu Beginn der
�euzeit (13.-17. Jahrhundert), hg. von Heide Wunder in
Zus e narbeit mit Susanna Burghartz, Dorothee Ripp
mann und Katharina Simon-Muscheid. Basel 1995 (BRIGIT-
TE RATH) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Karl Brunner, Herzogtümer und Marken. Vom Ungarn
sturm bis ins 12. Jahrhundert (Österreichische Geschichte
907-115 6, hg. von Herwig Wolfram) Wien: Ueberreuter 199 4
(GERHARD JARITZ) ………………………………………. 75
5
Vorwort
Durch den tragischen Tod von Harry Kühnel im August dieses Jahres hat nicht nur Medium Aevum Quotidianum seinen Präsidenten verloren, son dern auch die Erforschung von Alltag und materieller Kultur des Mittelal ters einen ihren herausragendsten Vertreter. Harry Kühnel hat in seinen wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten sowohl in methodologischer als auch in in haltlicher Hinsicht Bedeutendes geleistet und als Direktor des Instituts für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften vieles zur Intensivierung der Erforschung mittelalterlichen Alltagslebens beigetragen. Wir werden ihm ein ehrendes Angedenken bewahren.
Das vorliegende Heft von Medium Aevum Quotidianum bietet unter schiedliche Beiträge aus unserem Forschungsbereich, die von Mitgliedern und Freunden der Gesellschaft angeboten wurden. Das nächste Heft wird als Sonderband IV im März erscheinen und unter dem Titel „Quotidi um Estonicum“ unter der Herausgeberschaft von Jüri Kivimäe und Juhan Krem (Tallinn) Beiträge aus der Estnischen Alltagsgeschichtsforschung des Mit telalters beinhalten. Ein zweiter Sonderband des Jahres 199 6 wird sich unter der Herausgeberschaft von Dorothe Rippmann (Basel) Schwerpunkten Schweizer Forschung widmen. Zwei weitere Hefte werden unterschiedliche Beiträge unserer Mitglieder und Freunde beinhalten, mit manchen Schwer punkten auf alltagshistorisch relevanten Papieren, die bei den Mittelal terkonferenzen von Kalamazoo und Leeds 199 6 vorgelegt werden.
Wir wünschen Ihnen ein privat und wissenschaftlich erfolgreiches Jahr 1 9 9 6!
Gerhard Jaritz, Herausgeber
7