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Food, Drink and Diet (Medieval Studies)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Most of our information about this subject comes from the very end of the medieval period, the 14th and 15th centuries, the only time from which we have extensive written records. All that can be known about the earlier centuries comes from archaeology and medical texts, although the latter are not reliable sources of information about normal, everyday consumption of food and drink. Furthermore, the records of the later centuries mostly concern the households of the upper classes, and have little to say about the food and drink of the less well off. However, what records there are from earlier centuries suggest that medieval eating habits changed only very slowly, and some of the records in art suggest they hardly changed at all: the food served to the diners in the Bayeux tapestry hardly differs from that shown as served to countless notables in the centuries following. We have records of various sorts, which record charitable, and other, allowances to the poor. And for the better off, there are extensive records from the late period found in recipe collections; records of menus—most of the historical ones for special occasions like coronations, weddings, and Episcopal inductions, but also some suggested menus; and household records of purchases, and, in some cases, what foods were served on a day-to-day basis—which sometimes included what were served to the harvest laborers and others not necessarily included in the normal “household.” Further glimpses of eating and drinking, and sometimes cooking, are to be found in literary sources, but here again later works are far more informative than those of earlier periods: Chaucer, for example, has many references to food and drink, and even to the way cooks prepared the food, while Beowulf never mentions what food was served in the “mead hall,” although the drinks are mentioned many times. The present bibliography cannot attempt a guide to such literary references, but they are referred to frequently in many discussions of the subject. The art of the period is also an important source of information about food and dining customs: a good selection of such pictures will be found in many of the listed books. Most of the information here bears primarily on England and France, where the most work has been done. However, an attempt has been made to include material from elsewhere in Europe, even Scandinavia and eastern Europe, which are often excluded in discussions of the food of the West.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
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  7. Most of the works included here cover a very broad variety of topics. Adamson 2004, Laurioux 2002, and Scully 1995 discuss what was eaten, by whom, and how it was prepared, among other things. Adamson 2004 includes a helpful “timeline” in the beginning of the book, and Scully 1995 provides the best inclusive discussion of the field. Santich 1999 is a very good introduction to the field, much longer than the number of pages suggests, since they are very large pages with three columns each. Henisch 2009 has a heavier emphasis on cooks and kitchens, with many illustrations. Albala 2006 is an introductory treatment dealing with Europe in general. Woolgar 1999 is limited to the “great households” and the later period, but has much useful information.
  8.  
  9. Adamson, Melitta Weiss. Food in Medieval Times. Food through History. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004.
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  11. Includes a section on regional cuisines and discusses the roles of religion and medical theories of the time in determining what food and drink was appropriate for whom, and when, with attention to the diet of the peasants and townspeople. Drinks are included.
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  13. Albala, Ken. Cooking and Dining in Europe 1250–1650. Greenwood Press Daily Life through History Series: Cooking Up History. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006.
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  15. Introductory volume and overview on what was eaten during this period, with recipes. Includes glossary, sources for unusual ingredients, and information on components of the banquets ranging from sweets to drinks to main dishes.
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  17. Henisch, Bridget. The Medieval Cook. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2009.
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  19. Basically a study of cooks and their activities, as found in historical and literary sources as well as in medieval art. Many well-chosen illustrations. Written primarily for the general public, this would be an excellent introduction for students new to the field.
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  21. Lambert, Carole, ed. Du manuscrit à la table: Essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  23. Essays by twenty-five scholars on many aspects of the subject; some included under other headings here, all worth attention. Convenient one- or two- paragraph summaries of the articles, each in both English and French, are given in pages 293–313. For the “Répertoire,” see Hieatt, et al. 1992, cited under Culinary References.
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  25. Laurioux, Bruno. Manger au Moyen Àge: Pratiques et discours alimentaires en Europe aux XIVe et XVe siècles. La Vie Quotidienne Histoire. Paris: Hachette, 2002.
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  27. Looks at the diversity of medieval European cuisine in various regions, table manners, and other matters, with a tendency to emphasize the ways in which medieval tastes and preferences differed from our own. A good introduction for those who can read French.
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  29. Santich, Barbara. “Medieval Cuisine” and “Medieval Cuisine: The Sources.” In The Oxford Companion to Food. 2d ed. Edited by Alan Davidson, 491–494. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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  31. A thoroughgoing introduction to the field, geographically wide-ranging.
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  33. Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell and Brewer, 1995.
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  35. The most comprehensive treatment of the subject from a scholar with a particular interest in the medical background. Includes an extensive section on beverages (chap. 6) and discusses the training of a professional cook.
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  37. Woolgar, Christopher M. The Great Household in Late Medieval England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
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  39. Contains detailed chapters called “Food and Drink” and “Cooking and the Meal,” and some interesting information on mealtimes and fasting practices in the chapter “The Rhythms of the Household.”
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  41. Regional Overviews
  42.  
  43. Adamson 2002 contains nine papers on different regions of medieval Europe. Two of the books treated here, Brears 2008 and Hammond 1993, deal with medieval England as a whole. Laurioux 1997 has some discussion of developments elsewhere in Europe (and England), but is primarily about the cooking, and cookbooks, of medieval France; Laurioux may sometimes exaggerate the influence of the Viandier, but he is certainly right about its importance. Flandrin 2007 discusses the order of service in France, on which the author was unquestionably the expert. Crossley-Holland 1996 deals specifically with Paris, with some attention to country areas, which would have supplied food to those living in the city; much of what Crossley-Holland tells us can also apply to the residents of other cities, such as London. Dembińska 1999 deals with Poland, but the author’s findings may cast some light on conditions elsewhere, too. van Winter 2007 deals primarily, although not exclusively, with the medieval food of the Netherlands.
  44.  
  45. Adamson, Melitta Weiss, ed. Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays. Routledge Medieval Casebooks. New York and London: Routledge, 2002.
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  47. The regions discussed are “The Greco-Roman World,” Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Low Countries. Each is treated by an expert in that area, such as Terence Scully and Carole Lambert on, respectively, the north and south of France.
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  49. Brears, Peter. Cooking and Dining in Medieval England. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 2008.
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  51. More than half of this substantial book is devoted to describing the kitchen and dining arrangements of medieval English houses. Diagrams of the layouts of these houses and/or kitchens are included, as are pictures of kitchen equipment. The volume concludes with a sizable selection of adapted recipes.
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  53. Crossley-Holland, Nicole. Living and Dining in Medieval Paris. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1996.
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  55. Deals specifically with the household of the author of the Menagier de Paris (see Greco and Rose 2009, cited under Menus), here identified as the knight Guy de Montigny. Describes the house and the foods served, where they were obtained, and how cooked and served.
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  57. Dembińska, Maria. Food and Drink in Medieval Poland: Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past. Translated by Magdalena Thomas. Revised and edited by William Woys Weaver. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
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  59. In this revision and expansion of a doctoral thesis, Dembińska argues that economic reasons, rather than “class” division, dictated dietary choices in medieval Poland.
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  61. Flandrin, Jean-Louis. Arranging the Meal: A History of Table Service in France. Translated by Julie E. Johnson with Sylvie Roder and Antonio Roder. California Studies in Food and Culture 19. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
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  63. This book (L’Ordre des mets) by the leading French expert on medieval food of his day discusses, among other matters, the order in which foods were served in France, and elsewhere—a question that greatly occupied him in his later years.
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  65. Hammond, P. W. Food and Feast in Medieval England. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1993.
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  67. A thorough introduction to food and cooking in the English Middle Ages, with separate sections devoted to food of the countryman, the town dweller, and the gentry. Handsomely illustrated, highly readable, and with a long and useful bibliography. Revised edition published in 2005.
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  69. Laurioux, Bruno. Le règne de Taillevent: Livres et pratiques culinaires à la fin du Moyen Âge. Série Histoire Ancienne et Médiévale 45. Paris: Sorbonne, 1997.
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  71. While primarily about the origin and influence of the cookbook known as the Viandier of Taillevent (cook to two kings of France), deals with the subsequent history of French (and some other) cookery books and includes an edition of one somewhat later cookbook, the Vivendier (see Scully 1997, cited under Editions of Recipes).
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  73. van Winter, Johanna Maria. Spices and Comfits. Collected Papers on Medieval Foods. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 2007.
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  75. Many essays refer to medieval Dutch cookbooks, but some are much more wide ranging.
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  77. Overviews of the Earlier Period
  78.  
  79. Banham 2004 and Hagen 2006 deal with specifically Anglo-Saxon England, that is, the 5th century through c. 1100: these are thus among very few works dealing with the earlier period of the Middle Ages and therefore have a special value. But an even earlier cuisine that had a decisive influence on medieval Europe, especially in Italy, southern France, Spain and Catalonia, and England, was the Arabic; Rodinson, et al. 2001 is the fullest account in English of this cuisine. Grewe 1992 tells of the related Hispano-Arabic cuisine.
  80.  
  81. Banham, Debby. Food and Drink in Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2004.
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  83. Short but well-done volume on what was eaten in Anglo-Saxon England, based in part on Banham’s work on the Monasteriales Indicia and food plants as well as on archeological and linguistic evidence.
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  85. Grewe, Rudolf. “Hispano-Arabic Cuisine in the Twelfth Century.” In Du manuscrit à la table: Essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Edited by Carole Lambert, 141–148. Études Médiévales. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  87. Discusses two little-known extensive culinary collections of this period, one of which he was preparing for publication. (Unfortunately, he did not live to complete the project.) All papers presented at the international conference, Du Manuscrit à la Table, held in Montreal in May 1990.
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  89. Hagen, Ann. Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production, Processing, Distribution, and Consumption. Hockwold cum Wilton, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2006.
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  91. Combined version of A Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food: Processing and Consumption (Anglo-Saxon Books, 1992), and a second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: Production and Distribution (Anglo-Saxon Books, 1995). Contains a great deal of information of every kind about food and drink in Anglo-Saxon Britain, but it must be handled with care. Almost all the material is from secondary sources, some of which are of doubtful application, and some of which are certainly mishandled.
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  93. Rodinson, Maxime, A. J. Arberry, and Charles Perry. Medieval Arab Cookery: Essays and Translations. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 2001.
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  95. Contains several collections of recipes and essays examining, among other things, the meaning of some of the Arabic words that were adopted (and adapted) in Western languages.
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  97. Reference Works
  98.  
  99. Dictionaries are the main reference works needed for the study of medieval recipes, but the basic English dictionaries are sometimes unreliable guides to the meaning of culinary terms. Dictionaries, such as the Anglo-Norman Dictionary with older Anglo-Norman French forms are likely to be more helpful, since the Middle English culinary vocabulary was largely derived from this dialect of French. A number of online sites specialize in medieval and historical cookery resources. Carlin and Gloning are noted here.
  100.  
  101. Carlin, Martha. Professor Martha Carlin’s Home Page.
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  103. Offers links to electronic versions of reference tools, Medieval Household and Conduct Texts, and Medieval Cookery Resources, including online texts.
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  105. Cotgrave, Randle. A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1950.
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  107. This dictionary, originally published in London in 1611, is valuable for preserving the meanings of words in use in the 15th and 16th centuries, many of which were already obsolete in the early 17th century. For those with academic access, Cotgrave is available as part of EEBO and EEBO-TCP.
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  109. Gloning, Thomas. Monumenta Culinaria et Diaetetica Historica: Corpus of Culinary and Dietetic Texts of Europe from the Middle Ages to 1800.
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  111. Professor Gloning’s website features a number of digital cookery and dietetic texts, including many in German, as well as extensive bibliographies with thousands of citations.
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  113. Meredith, Peter. “The Language of Medieval Cookery.” In The English Cookery Book: Historical Essays. Edited by Eileen White, 28–54. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 2004.
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  115. An investigation into the nature (or existence) of a technical culinary language of the time, and the extent to which it is derived from Anglo-Norman French.
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  117. Oxford English Dictionary Online.
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  119. The 1989 second edition Oxford University Press set is still available in a 20-volume printed edition, also as a CD-ROM, and online—the only purely English dictionary to use. Those with academic access should use the online edition, which allows a variety of enhanced searching techniques, including full-text and Boolean searches.
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  121. Anglo-Norman Dictionary.
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  123. Online version of the print edition edited by William Rothwell, Louise W. Stone, and T. B. Reid (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1992). Invaluable for many culinary words of French origin. Second edition in preparation as of 2010.
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  125. Wright, Joseph. The English Dialect Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923.
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  127. Some of the words that turn up in recipes may be rare localisms, and when a word cannot be found in any of the above, it may sometimes be located here. Many more recent editions. The 1923 edition appeared in six volumes, accompanied by a “Supplement, Bibliography and Grammar.”
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  129. Culinary References
  130.  
  131. The first place to look for information about medieval recipes and their vocabularies is the glossaries that most modern editions supply; some also have other helpful apparatus, such as lists of ingredients. Serjeantson 1938 gives some helpful information on medieval culinary vocabulary. However, more general culinary references also have their uses, such as those here listed by Bartlett 1996 and Davidson 2006. Robinson 1999 is the equivalent of Davidson 2006, concentrating just on wine. Hieatt, et al. 1992 gives a listing of all known (as of 1992) medieval manuscripts containing recipes, and Hieatt, et al. 2006 provides information about all individual recipes that have appeared in printed editions. See also Sutton and Hammond 1984 (cited under Menus) for another useful glossary.
  132.  
  133. Bartlett, Jonathan. The Cook’s Dictionary and Culinary Reference: A Comprehensive, Definitive Guide to Cooking and Food. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1996.
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  135. A dictionary containing definitions and clarifications of common and obscure cooking phrases, methods, tools, and ingredients, many of which have not changed much over the centuries.
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  137. Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. 2d ed. Edited by Tom Jaine. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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  139. This monumental work covers just about every aspect of food, and food history, everywhere in the world. Most of the entries were written by Davidson, but some were contributed by others.
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  141. Encyclopedia of Food and Culture.
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  143. The online edition of the print version edited by Solomon H. Katz (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004). Three volumes offer keyword searching and numerous entries on the medieval period.
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  145. Hieatt, Constance B., Carole Lambert, Bruno Laurioux, and Alix Prentki. “Répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires.” In Du manuscrit à la table: essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Edited by Carole Lambert, 315–379. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  147. A listing, alphabetical by geographical location, of all medieval manuscripts containing culinary recipes, scholarly discussions of them, and their editions or lack thereof. May need some updating after almost twenty years, but likely to remain the fullest record for some time.
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  149. Hieatt, Constance B., Terry Nutter, and Johnna H. Holloway. Concordance of English Recipes, Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 312. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006.
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  151. Lists all the English recipes of this period which had been published to date. Each entry gives the recipe’s name in its source, a lemmatized reference, the source, and an approximate date. Includes a glossary, index of titles, and an appendix giving Renaissance versions of medieval recipes.
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  153. Myers, Daniel. Medieval Cookery.
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  155. Medieval Cookery offers a listing of online medieval cookbooks, dictionary of terms, and sources for ingredients. Also offers more than one hundred adapted medieval recipes. Includes a unique search feature for keyword searching through a number of medieval texts.
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  157. Robinson, Jancis, ed. The Oxford Companion to Wine. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
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  159. The place to look if you come across an unfamiliar wine name in medieval recipes. Originally published in 1994.
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  161. Serjeantson, M. S. “The Vocabulary of Cookery in the Fifteenth Century.” In Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association. Vol. 23. Edited by S. C. Roberts, 25–37. Oxford: Clarendon, 1938.
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  163. A good listing, but of course much has been published since 1938, and the glossaries of such later editions show many other words not included here.
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  165. Journals
  166.  
  167. Most of the journals devoted to matters medieval, with the exception of the email Medieval Review (TMR), rarely publish articles or reviews specifically bearing on food, drink, and diet, but Speculum and Medium Aevum are too influential to be omitted from this list. Medieval Archaeology is only one of many archeology journals which often contain relevant material, but it seems to be the most useful one to consult for this subject. Petits Propos Culinaires, known as PPC, is a general culinary journal, but with frequent references to medieval matters.
  168.  
  169. Medium Aevum. 1932–.
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  171. A British journal of medieval studies with an occasional article bearing on medieval food or review of a book in the field.
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  173. Medieval Archaeology. 1957–.
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  175. One of many archeology journals, but one that specifically concentrates on matters medieval from the 5th to the 16th century.
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  177. The Medieval Review. 1993–.
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  179. TMR, formerly the Bryn Mawr Medieval Review, has been reviewing most new books in this field and distributing them to subscribers by e-mail.
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  181. Petits Propos Culinaires. 1979–.
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  183. Most issues of this journal contain articles or notes on medieval food, and/or reviews of recent books in the field.
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  185. Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. 1926–.
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  187. Interdisciplinary journal published by the Medieval Academy of America; occasionally publishes articles or reviews books in this field.
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  189. Literary Sources
  190.  
  191. There have been few studies of food in medieval English literature, but Biebel 1998 discusses Chaucer’s use of food. See also Bloomfield 1952 (cited under Religious Constraints). Farrier 1995 deals with some English works, including “Gawain and the Green Knight,” and a number of French ones. Magennis 1999 deals with the Anglo-Saxon period and the literature of neighboring countries at the time. Buschinger 1984 discusses food in early German Arthurian romance, and Charbonnier 1984 deals with the meaning of food and drink in the Latin beast Epic Ysengrimus. Medieval French literature has had a little more attention; see Larmat 1984 and Combarieu 1984. The volume from which these are cited contains three more studies of food in French works of the period. Marks 1995 discusses the use of food by Dante and Charles of Orleans.
  192.  
  193. Biebel, Elizabeth M. “Pilgrims to Table: Food Consumption in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.” In Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. Edited by Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal, 15–26. London: Hambledon, 1998.
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  195. Discusses their tastes in food as differentiating the pilgrims and the characters in the tales they tell, and sometimes suggesting Chaucer’s own values, for example, with regard to the status of women.
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  197. Buschinger, D. “La nourriture dans les romans Arthuriens Allemands entre 1170 et 1210.” In Manger et boire au Moyen Âge: Actes du Colloque de Nice (15–17 Octobre 1982). Vol. 1. Edited by Denis Menjot, 377–389. Centre d’Études Médiévales de Nice 2. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984.
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  199. Analyzes the symbolic value of food, or the lack thereof, in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival and a few other Arthurian romances.
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  201. Charbonnier, E. “Manger et boire dans l’Ysengrimus. In Manger et boire au Moyen Âge: Actes du Colloque de Nice (15–17 Octobre 1982). Vol. 1. Edited by Denis Menjot, 406–414. Centre d’Études Médiévales de Nice 2. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984.
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  203. The wolf’s sojourn among the monks, sharing their food and drink, is primarily a satire directed at the monks, whose gula, shared with the wolf, is contrary to their regula.
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  205. Combarieu, M. de. “Manger (et boire) dans Le Roman de Renart.” In Manger et boire au Moyen Âge: Actes du Colloque de Nice (15–17 Octobre 1982). Vol. 1. Edited by Denis Menjot, 415–428. Centre d’Études Médiévales de Nice 2. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984.
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  207. Argues that hunger is the prime motivator of all action here, and that while the beast characters represent human failings, their relationship to food and drink remains that of beasts: all is eaten raw and not washed down with alcohol.
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  209. Farrier, Susan E. “Hungry Heroes in Medieval Literature.” In Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays. Edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson, 145–159. Garden Reference Library of the Humanities; Garland Medieval Casebooks 12. New York: Garland, 1995.
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  211. Argues that hunger in medieval romances and chansons de geste, along with violence involving nonknightly weapons, is generally limited to lower-class characters; when “noble” heroes show hunger (and/or ignoble violence), excuses are found for them, contrary to their regula.
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  213. Larmat, J., “Manger et boire dans Le moniage Guillaume et dans Le moniage Rainouart.” In Manger et boire au Moyen Âge: Actes du Colloque de Nice (15–17 Octobre 1982). Vol. 1. Edited by Denis Menjot, 391–404. Centre d’Études Médiévales de Nice 2. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984.
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  215. Finds these two works in contrast with each other in their uses of food and drink: Guillaume does quite well on the monk’s simple fare, while Rainouart is a comic-heroic character in need of strong food and drink.
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  217. Magennis, Hugh. Anglo-Saxon Appetites: Food and Drink and Their Consumption in Old English and Related Literature. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts, 1999.
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  219. Discusses food, drink, and attitudes toward fasting (or overeating).
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  221. Marks, Diane R. “Food for Thought: The Banquet of Poetry in Dante and Charles of Orleans.” In Medieval Food and Drink. Edited by Mary-Jo Arn, 85–97. ACTA 21. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1995.
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  223. Both poets (Dante and Charles of Orleans) present a group of poems as a “banquet,” evidently in hope of being rewarded for this “hospitality.”
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  225. Editions of Recipes
  226.  
  227. Since there are far too many editions of such collections to be listed here, most such editions should be located through bibliographies; see Culinary References for primary sources and the Concordance of Hieatt, et al. 2006 there. But more recent works may contain the most up-to-date bibliographies, which is the main reason for including Hieatt 2008 here. Other recent editions include Lambert 1988, Adamson 2000, Grewe and Hieatt 2001, Scully 1997, and Santanach 2008. Platina’s famous 15th-century cookbook (Millham 1998), the first medieval cookbook to be printed and translated into other languages, is a prime example of the period’s blending of the culinary and the medical. Prescott 1988 is a translation of the famous Viandier of Taillevent. See also the editions listed under Menus. For a reliable and up-to-date bibliography of medieval French recipe collections, see Laurioux 1997 in Le règne de Taillevent, listed under Regional Overviews. For electronic editions, see Myers under Culinary References and Carlin and Gloning under Reference Works.
  228.  
  229. Adamson, Melitta Weiss, ed. Daz bůch [i.e. Buoch] von gůter [i.e. guoter] spise = The Book of Good Food: A Study, Edition and English Translation of the Oldest German Cookbook. Medium Aevum Quotidianum 9. Krems, Austria: Medium Aevum Quotidianum, 2000.
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  231. An edition, commentary on, and translation of “the oldest German cookbook” (but see Grewe and Hieatt 2001). Shows many ways in which German cooking already differed from that of England and France.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Grewe, Rudolf, and Constance B. Hieatt, eds. and trans. Libellus de arte Coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book. Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies 5. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001.
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  235. An edition, with translations, of four versions of an early cookery book found in Old Danish, Icelandic, and Low German manuscripts. The collection apparently originated with a German doctor trained in the south at a very early date.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Hieatt, Constance B., ed. A Gathering of Medieval English Recipes. Textes Vernaculaires du Moyen Âge 5. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2008.
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  239. A collection of a great many hitherto unedited medieval English recipes. The introduction lists all known medieval English manuscripts, including culinary recipes of the period with information about editions available or forthcoming. The edition ends with a supplement to the Concordance.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Lambert, Carole, ed. Le recueil de riom et la manière de henter soutillement: Un livre de cuisine et un réceptaire sur les greffes du XVe siècle. Le Moyen Français 20. Montreal: Ceres, 1988.
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  243. The publication of this small collection of recipes from the Auvergne, along with Scully’s publication of those of Chiquart from the Savoy (see Scully 1986, cited under Menus), significantly enlarged our knowledge of the regional differences in the cuisine of medieval France.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Millham, Mary Ella, ed. Platina on Right Pleasure and Good Health: A Critical Edition of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 168. Tempe, AZ: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1998.
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  247. Classic 15th-century Italian cookbook, based largely on the earlier cookbook of Martino, but also on Pliny and the Arabic and Latin medical traditions.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Prescott, James, trans. Le Viandier de Taillevent: 14th Century Cookery.
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  251. Originally published in paperback (Eugene, OR: Alfarhauger, 1988). While Scully gives separate translations in his 1988 edition of this well-known text, this online translation offers a simpler approach.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Santanach, Joan, ed. The Book of Sent Sovi: Medieval Recipes from Catalonia. Translated by Robin Vogelzang. Serie B, Textos 51. Barcelona, Spain: Barcino and Tamesis, 2008.
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  255. A bilingual edition of the oldest surviving Catalan culinary text, one of considerable complexity and interest.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Scully, Terence, ed. The Vivendier, a Fifteenth-Century French Cookery Manuscript: A Critical Edition with English Translation. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 1997.
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  259. An excellent edition, with translations and commentary, of a cookery collection from the far north of France, embodying traditions often different from those found in other French works of the period. Includes a list of ingredients and some useful appendices.
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  261. Adapted Recipes
  262.  
  263. All of the recipes in the books listed here except Flandrin and Lambert 1998 are in English; all have measurements and cooking directions according to modern custom. Gitlitz and Davidson 1999 adapt reconstructed recipes from Spain’s “Cryptic” Jews of the post-Inquisition period. Medieval French recipes are featured in Scully and Scully 1995. Hieatt, et. al. 1996, Santich 1995, and Redon, et al. 1998 cover more than one medieval cuisine. See also Brears 2008 and Dembińska 1999, both cited under Regional Overviews. See also Myers under Culinary References.
  264.  
  265. Flandrin, Jean-Louis, and Carole Lambert. Fêtes gourmandes au Moyen Age. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1998.
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  267. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings, this volume begins with menus and a discussion of the order of courses in medieval France (see the fuller discussion of these matters in Flandrin 2007, cited under Regional Overviews), then proceeds to give many recipes from various French sources.
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  269. Gitlitz, David, and Linda Kay Davidson. A Drizzle of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain’s Secret Jews. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
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  271. Most of the recipes here are modern recreations of Iberian Jewish recipes as referenced in the records of the Spanish Inquisition. Some are very similar to other medieval recipes; others, such as matzos, will be familiar to modern Jews.
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  273. Hieatt, Constance B., Brenda Hosington, and Sharon Butler. Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks. 2d ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
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  275. The most wide-ranging of these collections: the recipes printed (in translation, if the original was not English) and adapted in this book come from English (including Anglo-Norman), French, Italian, Catalan, and Arabic sources.
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  277. Redon, Odile, Françoise Sabban, and Silvano Serventi. The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy. Translated by Edward Schneider. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
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  279. This collection of mostly French and Italian recipes (a few English ones are included) contains a separate section giving all the recipes in their original languages. Ample introduction and commentary, and suggestions for mail-order sources of ingredients.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Renfrow, Cindy. Take a Thousand Eggs or More. A Collection of 15th Century Recipes. 2 vol. 2d rev. ed. Unionville, NY: Royal Fireworks, 1997.
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  283. More than one hundred adapted Harleian MS. 279, and Harleian MS. 4016 recipes, along with glossaries, menus, and advice on how to adapt original recipes. See Renfrow’s website for more material.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Santich, Barbara. The Original Mediterranean Cuisine: Medieval Recipes for Today. Chicago: Chicago Review, 1995.
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  287. Bridges the chasm between the scholarly and the usable/popular with an authoritative account of the original nature of Mediterranean cuisine and some user-friendly adapted recipes. But it is underdocumented for scholarly purposes: we have to take her word for her suggestions most of the time.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Savelli, Mary. Tastes of Anglo-Saxon England. Hockwold-cum-Wilton, UK: Anglo-Saxon Books, 2002.
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  291. A brave (and generally satisfactory) attempt to recreate recipes of the period using ingredients and techniques that were certainly known, although the only “recipes” we have were strictly medical.
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  293. Scully, D. Eleanor, and Terence Scully. Early French Cookery: Sources, History, Original Recipes, and Modern Adaptations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995.
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  295. French recipes for those who want really full details: a recipe here for chicken with sage sauce takes up three large pages, not counting an introductory page; the same recipe in another cookbook takes up less than one (smaller) page. Adds elaborate instructions for creating a medieval banquet in one’s home.
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  297. Drinks and Significant Ingredients
  298.  
  299. Beer, wine, and spices were so important in the scheme of things that each deserves study by itself. Specimens of these are found in Unger 2004 on beer, James 1971 on wine, and Freedman 2008 on spices. Acton and Duncan 1966 tells us how to make mead and several other popular medieval drinks, some of which are still in demand. On wine, see also work by Robinson, cited under Culinary References. Harvey 1981 remains the best work on medieval gardens and plants.
  300.  
  301. Acton, G. W. B., and Peter Duncan. Making Mead: A Complete Guide to the Making of Sweet and Dry Mead, Melonell, Metheglin, Hippocras, Pyment and Cyser. Andover, UK: Amateur Winemaker, 1966.
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  303. A modern guide to making drinks that achieved their greatest popularity in the Middle Ages.
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  305. Freedman, Paul. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008.
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  307. Discusses the history of the spice trade and the reasons why spices were in high demand, both for medical use and in cooking.
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  309. Harvey, John. Mediaeval Gardens. Beaverton, OR: Timber, 1981.
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  311. Includes a valuable “dated list” for “plants of the Middle Ages” and the gradual introduction of foreign plants over time.
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  313. James, M. K., ed. Studies in the Medieval Wine Trade. Oxford: Clarendon, 1971.
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  315. Essays by various hands on some aspects and effects of the wine trade in this period.
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  317. Unger, Richard W. Beer in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.
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  319. Medieval beer was consumed by men, women, and children, often as a nutritional necessity or food and as medicine. An absorbing book based on archives in the Low Countries and England.
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  321. Table Manners
  322.  
  323. This subject is much misunderstood by the general public due to outrageous treatment of it by the media: no one who thinks people could have gnawed on bones or thrown them around, in the disorderly manner they have seen in the movies, knows anything of the precise code of manners observed by all, even peasants, in the Middle Ages. These matters are also discussed in most of the works listed under General Overviews and Regional Overviews (but see especially chapter 22 in Brears 2008) and some listed under Adapted Recipes, but for those who would like some original medieval examples of the codes assumed, here are a few taken from The Babees Book and Barberino 2009. See also Carroll 2005 (cited under Archaeology and Diet).
  324.  
  325. Barberino, Francesco da. “Documenti d’amore (selections).” Edited and translated by Eleonora Stoppino. In Medieval Conduct Literature: An Anthology of Vernacular Guides to Behaviour for Youths, with English Translations. Edited by Kathleen M. Ashley, Mark D. Johnston, et al., 160–183. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
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  327. See pages 174 ff. for conduct at table, especially for a youth serving, from this early-14th-century Italian source. Some may also be interested in his advice for women printed before this, such as why young women of good family should learn to cook.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Brears, Peter. “Table Manners.” In Cooking and Dining in Medieval England. By Peter Brears, 423–438. Totnes, UK: Prospect, 2008.
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  331. Describes a variety of medieval halls and the manners denoting status and education.
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  333. Furnivall, Frederick J., ed. The Babees Book. New York: Greenwood, 1969.
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  335. The Babees Book, containing a number of original texts on medieval education and courtesy, may also be found online at the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse (University of Michigan) and the Internet Archive. Includes The Fyrst Boke of Curtasye (pp. 299–303), which describes proper behavior from the moment of entering the dining hall; Modus Cenandi (The way of dining; pp. 35–57), which offers advice on what should be served when and how to choose; and Stans Puer ad Mensam (The page standing at the table), instructions for the inexperienced young man.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Menus
  338.  
  339. Menus, both historical and theoretical, often found in manuscripts that contain recipes, are printed in many of the editions of English medieval recipes; examples given here are Austin 1964 and Napier 1882. John Russell’s mid-15th-century Boke of Nurture (Russell 1969) contains several suggested menus. Among French sources, Chiquart (ed. and trans. Scully 1986) mixes in advice on menus with cooking instructions, and the Menagier de Paris (Greco and Rose 2009) has an interesting section on menus. See also Flandrin and Lambert 1998 (cited under Adapted Recipes). See Staniland 1986 and Sutton and Hammond 1984 to see just how demanding the planning for a major feast with a complicated menu had to be.
  340.  
  341. Austin, Thomas, ed. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books. London: Oxford University Press, 1964.
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  343. Originally published in 1888. Available online through the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse and the Internet Archive. Gives a number of historical feast menus from both of the principal manuscripts here printed; because these are all from major occasions, such as the coronation of Henry IV, they are long, complex menus.
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  345. Greco, Gina L., and Christine M. Rose, trans. The Good Wife’s Guide (Le Menagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2009.
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  347. The first full English translation of this important 14th-century French text, including all the recipes and menus. (The most recent edition in French is that of Brereton and Ferrier 1981.)
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  349. Napier, Mrs. Alexander Robina, ed. A Noble Boke off Cookry ffor a Prynce Houssolde or eny other estately Houssolde; Reprinted Verbatim from a Rare MS in the Holkham Collection. London: Elliot Stock, 1882.
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  351. This collection of 15th-century recipes begins with a group of menus, both historical and simply recommended. Available online.
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  353. Russell, John. “A Boke of Nurture.” In The Babees Book. Edited by Frederick J. Furnivall, 164–171. New York: Greenwood, 1969.
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  355. Suggested menus for a flesh day and a fish day, plus “A fest for a franklen,” obviously for a flesh day, followed by some recommendations of sauces.
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  357. Scully, Terence, ed. and trans. Chiquart’s “On Cookery”: A Fifteenth-Century Savoyard Culinary Treatise. American University Studies series 9 (History) 22. New York: Peter Lang, 1986.
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  359. Gives directions for preparing menus suitable for certain days or occasions, but the emphasis is on what the cooks and staff must do, not on lists of dishes to be presented.
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  361. Staniland, Kay. “The Nuptials of Alexander III of Scotland and Margaret Plantagenet.” Nottingham Medieval Studies 30 (1986): 20–45.
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  363. A full account of the elaborate preparations for this royal occasion, including details about the feast.
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  365. Sutton, Anne F., and P. W. Hammond, eds. The Coronation of Richard III: The Extant Documents. New York: St. Martin’s, 1984.
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  367. Contains a full account of the coronation feast, which went on so long that one full course had to be canceled. The editors express a hope that the kitchen help got to eat it.
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  369. Household Accounts
  370.  
  371. The accounts listed here are all for English households, very large (Labarge 1965), moderately large (Redstone 1931, Ross 2003), mixed but generally large (Woolgar 1992–1993), and quite small (Wood-Legh 1956). A very different, but also very large, household was that of Bishop Richard de Swinfield; see Webb 1854–1855. For the purchases of a French household, but without actual household accounts, see Crossley-Holland 1996 (cited under Regional Overviews); see also Dembińska 1999 (cited under Regional Overviews) for household expenses in Poland. See Woolgar 2006 (cited under Medical Background and Sources) for chapters on the households of bishops and the queens of the 13th and 14th centuries.
  372.  
  373. Labarge, Margaret Wade. A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1965.
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  375. The many problems of the great household of the Countess of Leicester, with expenses on a grand scale. Compare her thirty-seven hundred eggs at Easter in 1265 with Dame Alice’s expenditure of a mere fifteen pence for eggs at Easter 1413.
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  377. Redstone, V. B., ed. The Household Book of Dame Alice de Bryene of Acton Hall, Suffolk, September 1412–September 1413. Translated by M. K. Dale. Ipswich, UK: W. E. Harrison, 1931.
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  379. These records of a gentlewoman’s household kept carefully for an entire year detail exactly what was served at every meal to how many people every day (usually, about twenty for dinner), and what was paid for what quantity of spices, among other matters. Reprinted in 1984 (Bungay, UK: Paradigm).
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  381. Ross, Barbara, ed. and trans. Accounts of the Stewards of the Talbot Household at Blakemere, 1392–1425. Shropshire Record Series 7. Keele, UK: Centre for Local History, University of Keele, 2003.
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  383. These accounts cover the food and household needs of a good-sized manor somewhere between those of Alice de Bryene and the Countess of Leicester: the average number of people for meals here seems to have been about four hundred, about a quarter of whom were not members of the household.
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  385. Webb, John, ed. A Roll of Household Expenses of Richard de Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford during Part of the Years 1289 and 1290. 2 vols. London: Camden Society, o.s. 59 and 62, 1854–1855.
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  387. This Episcopal household of the Bishop of Hereford was also on a pretty grand scale: for Easter 1390, fourteen hundred eggs were ordered. Johannes de Kemeseye is cited as author.
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  389. Wood-Legh, Kathleen L., ed. A Small Household of the 15th Century: Being the Account Book of Munden’s Chantry, Bridport. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1956.
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  391. This is the most unusual of the household accounts of this period, coming as it does from a very small, undistinguished, middle-class household, consisting of two priests of advanced years with only one or two servants to complete the household. Still, such luxurious purchases as spices are noted.
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  393. Woolgar, Christopher M. Household Accounts from Medieval England. 2 vols.. British Academy Records of Social and Economic History, n.s. 17–18. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992–1993.
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  395. Household accounts from the early 13th through the 15th centuries; the diet accounts, mostly concerning purchases, come from sixteen lay and clerical households. All accounts are in Latin; a glossary is provided for those who want to read the Latin.
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  397. Religious Constraints
  398.  
  399. Most of the works listed under General Overviews, and quite a few listed elsewhere, have a good deal to say about the fast days imposed on all Christians by the church, and their effect on what medieval people ate. In this section are given some works specifically on this subject. A thorough overall treatment is Henisch 1976, including what was, in a way, the opposite of fasting, the provision of “pittances” to supplement monastic diets. Bloomfield 1952 comments on fasting under the heading of “gluttony.” Bell 1985 and Bynum 1987 concentrate mostly on the effect of fasting rules on women, while Rouche 1984 shows how monastic (and other) fasting habits changed over the years. Scully 1992 considers the effect of the church year on the seasonal diet of the Menagier’s Paris household (see Greco and Rose 2009, cited under Menus). Of course, Jews and Muslims also had religious dietary constraints: for information on these, especially for the Jews, see Gitlitz and Davidson 1999 (cited under Adapted Recipes).
  400.  
  401. Bell, Rudolf M. Holy Anorexia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
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  403. Details some of the extremes to which saints and “holy women” went to prove they were above feeling bodily desires.
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  405. Bloomfield, Morton W. The Seven Deadly Sins: An Introduction to the History of a Religious Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Literature. Studies in Language and Literature. East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1952.
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  407. The discussion of gluttony has many references to literary examples.
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  409. Bynum, Caroline Walker. Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
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  411. Discusses the symbolism of the Eucharist as a holy feast as well as both moderate and extreme fasting habits of various types of Christian women.
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  413. Henisch, Bridget Ann. Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.
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  415. Chapter 3, “Fast and Feast” (pp. 28–58), is the fullest overview of the subject of fasting.
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  417. Rouche, M. “Les repas de fete a l’ époque Carolingienne.” In Manger et boire au Moyen Âge. Nice: Centre d’études médiévales de Nice, Actes du Colloque de Nice. 15–17 Octobre 1982. Vol. 1. Edited by D. Menjot, 265–296. Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Nice 1.27–28. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1984.
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  419. The falling-off in 8th- and 9th-century France of both monks and lay clergy, as well as other laypersons, from the standards for fasting set by earlier generations and regulations.
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  421. Scully, Terence. “Les saisons alimentaires du Menagier de Paris.” In Du manuscrit à la table: Essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Edited by Carole Lambert, 205–214. Études médiévales. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  423. Tells us that the Menagier’s notes tell us how closely the Church as well as the seasons determined what foods were eaten (see Greco and Rose 2009, cited under Menus). Presented at the international conference “Du Manuscrit à la Table,” held in Montreal in May 1990.
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  425. Medical Background and Sources
  426.  
  427. Most significant for its effect on medieval diet was the theory of the “four humours”; this is explained in Adamson 1995 and Scully 1995. Adamson 1995, however, gives a lot more information about the medical background for the whole period. Spencer 1984 gives a handsome example of the kind of medical handbook Adamson describes, the Tacuinum sanitatis. Cameron 1993 treats only the works known during the Anglo-Saxon period, when humoral theory was not so prevalent in England. Weiss-Amer 1992 discusses, as the title indicates, the role medieval physicians played in the diffusion of recipes. O’Hara-May 1977 on the Galenic four humour system is considered to be a classic in its field. Schleissner 1995 gives several sources of information about the manuscript evidence. Aphrodisiacs are generally considered as superstitions by enlightened moderns, but they had a place in medieval medicine, as shown in Roy 1992. See also Scully 1995 (cited under General Overviews).
  428.  
  429. Adamson, Melitta Weiss. Medieval Dietetics: Food and Drink in Regimen Sanitatis Literature from 800 to 1400. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Peter Lang, 1995.
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  431. Traces the reigning medical theory of the day from its ancient Greek roots through the Arabic writer known as Ibn Butlan to examples of the medieval genre known as the Regimen sanitatis, and discusses its effect on what foods were considered best for various groups or individuals.
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  433. Cameron, M. L. Anglo-Saxon Medicine. Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 7. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
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  435. Argues that Anglo-Saxon medicine was of high quality for its time, and often less harmful than most medical practice up to the present century. For example, since the theory of the four humours was not well understood, they did not resort to bloodletting as frequently as did others.
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  437. O’Hara-May, Jane. An Elizabethan Dyetary of Health. Lawrence, KS: Coronado, 1977.
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  439. The subject is a 16th-century work, but the discussion of Galen’s teaching and its effect on diet is obviously relevant to earlier centuries.
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  441. Roy, Bruno. “Trois regards sur les aphrodisiaques.” In Du manuscrit à la table: Essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Edited by Carole Lambert, 285–292. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  443. Explains that aphrodisiacs were rated by several methods, one of which was linked to the theory of four humours.
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  445. Schleissner, Margaret R., ed. Manuscript Sources of Medieval Medicine: A Book of Essays. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 1576. New York and London: Garland, 1995.
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  447. This casebook features essays on a number of medieval medical manuscripts, including the Codex Berleburg, Harley MS 2558, and Saint Hildegard’s Physica. Not all the essays here have direct bearing on the effect of medieval medicine on food habits, but the subjects are inextricably mixed.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Scully, Terence. “Mixing It Up in the Medieval Kitchen.” In Medieval Food and Drink. Edited by Mary-Jo Arn, 85–97. ACTA 21. Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and Early Renaissance Studies, 1995.
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  451. Begins with a succinct explanation of the four humours with well-chosen illustrations. Then argues that when medieval recipes tell us to “temper” food with an added ingredient they mean to modify the “humoural” nature of the food, and thus the balance of humours in the person eating it.
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  453. Spencer, Judith, trans. The Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti. New York and Bicester, UK: Facts on File, 1984.
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  455. Complete translation, with more than two hundred color reproductions of the original illustrations, of Ibn Butlan’s 11th-century Tacuinum sanitatis (Tables of health). A selection of these plates can be viewed online.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Weiss-Amer, Melitta. “The Role of Medieval Physicians in the Diffusion of Culinary Recipes and Cooking Practices.” In Du manuscrit à la table: Essais sur la cuisine au Moyen Âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. Edited by Carole Lambert, 69–80. Montreal. Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992.
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  459. Medieval physicians often included recipes in their health regimens, which witness what was current in their own areas, but also what was current where they had gone for their training. Since they often traveled great distances to study, they thus conveyed new ideas to their home regions.
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  461. Woolgar, Christopher M. The Senses in Late Medieval England. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
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  463. Examines the individual senses (including taste), “humoural” theory, and the human body as perceived in late medieval England. Also contains chapters on the households of bishops and the queens of the 13th and 14th centuries.
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  465. Archaeology and Diet
  466.  
  467. Woolgar, et al. 2006 is an interdisciplinary contribution by thirteen historians, archaeologists, and scientists; the bibliography, running to forty-three pages, is a contribution in itself. Food and Drink in Archaeology contains a number of diverse insights into medieval food in places ranging from Spain to Ireland. Dyer 1998 and Woolgar 2001 deal with the diets of, respectively, English peasants and the upper class. Carlin 1998 deals with the diets of the urban poor. Laing 2006 and Wilson 1976 deal with archaeological findings on the earlier periods in Britain, while Thomas 2002 deals with the important subject of medieval London. See also Brears 2008 (cited under Regional Overviews) for the use of archaeological findings in reconstructing medieval kitchens.
  468.  
  469. Carlin, Martha. “Fast Food and Urban Living Standards in Medieval England.” In Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. Edited by Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal, 27–51. London: Hambledon, 1998.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. Examines the vending of hot prepared foods in the cities of medieval England and its role in feeding the working poor.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Carroll, Maureen, D. M. Hadley, and Hugh Willmott. Consuming Passions: Dining from Antiquity to the Eighteenth Century. Stroud, UK: Tempus, 2005.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. Includes chapters on Hanseatic table culture, pottery and manners, and dining in the later Middle Ages.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Dyer, Christopher. “Did the Peasants Really Starve in Medieval England?” In Food and Eating in Medieval Europe. Edited by Martha Carlin and Joel T. Rosenthal. London: Hambledon, 1998.
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  479. Concludes that peasants sometimes did starve, before the year 1375, although deaths were often due to epidemics rather than famine; after 1375, English peasants were generally better off and unlikely to starve, unlike those in France.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Food and Drink in Archaeology.
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  483. This is a new series that annually publishes (mostly brief) graduate research papers delivered orally at annual conferences. Subjects of interest here in the first two editions include food in Norse Greenland, Iceland, early medieval Ireland, late medieval London, medieval Spain, and Anglo-Saxon England.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Laing, Lloyd. The Archaeology of Celtic Britain and Ireland, c. AD 400–1200. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. Archaeological findings on the earliest historical period in Britain and Ireland. Originally published in 1975.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Thomas, Christopher. The Archaeology of Medieval London. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2002.
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  491. Details here on findings in London are obviously important to our understanding of what was consumed in that city.
  492. Find this resource:
  493. Wilson, David M., ed. The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England. London: Methuen, 1976.
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  495. Essays on various aspects of the archaeology of England in the early period.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Woolgar, Christopher M. “Fast and Feast: Conspicuous Consumption and the Diet of the Nobility in the Fifteenth Century.” In Revolution and Consumption in Late Medieval England. Edited by Michael A. Hicks, 7–25. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2001.
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  499. The use of expensive spices was only one of the signals the privileged used to distinguish themselves in the Middle Ages.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Woolgar, Christopher M., Dale Serjeantson, and Tony Waldron, eds. Food in Medieval England: Diet and Nutrition. Medieval History and Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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  503. The first part of the book surveys different foodstuffs; it includes a discussion of gardens and garden produce, which should be read by those who think medieval people didn’t eat vegetables. The second section looks at diet and its effects, including evidence from human bones.
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