SC - Re: sources of sources.

[RuddR at aol.com]

Bear writes:

<< The period manuscript sources we use (eight on my list of primary sources)
 were mostly written between 1350 and 1450.  They are almost evenly divided
 on either side of 1400.  As these works are represented by single existing
 copies, they can not be demonstrated to be "mass market" copies or cherished
 family heirlooms.  I tend to favor the latter. >>

I pretty sure we each have a similar list of primary sources.  Where did each
of these come form?  Who first put down the money for, say, Arundel MS 334,
and to whom?  Some of these cookery books seem to be copies of copies, or cut-
and-paste compilations of several common originals.  Some may have been
specially commisioned, but whoever executed the commision possibly did more
copying and editing than interviewing famous cooks. 

Very likely, a variety of people from the wealthier parts of society, noble,
gentry and middle-class alike, both specially commisioned cookery books and
bought them ready-made,  either to present to their cooks to use, or to show
off to company as an item no cultured household should be without.  Some were
destined to become family heirlooms (a good way to explain the survival of so
many).  Wherever they ended up, surely some of them were originally purchased
by members of the middle class.  Did the Menagier specially commision the
cookery books he owned, or did he buy them at a bookstall?  We can't tell; he
didn't save his receipts (no pun intended).

And tangential to all this, how many literate chief cooks were there, who
could actually read a cookery book for themselves?  Chiquart dictated his work
to a scribe.  I can imagine a chief cook of a great household, having to
prepare a major banquet and needing some ideas, having to get his Lord's
scribe to read to him from the cookery book.

Rudd Rayfield
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================