SC - ETHICAL DILEMMA

[Seton1355@aol.com]

Apart from cookbooks, there are other sources/ articles that allow or
help to reconstruct menues:

1. -- There are investigations about certain courts. E.g., Gerhard
Fouquet published an investigtion about eating and drinking at the court
of Bishop Matthias Rammung of Speyer around 1470. Among other things, he
used bills, accounts and the "Ordenunge, wie es mit den kochen zu
ydertzit in unser kuchen solle gehalten werden" (Ordinance of cooking/
for the cooks; I'll put this document online not later than 2013). One
of his findings was, that the meals of everyday were _very_ much simpler
than the meals of representation: "auch am Hof des Speyerer Bischofs
wurde für das Fest gespart" (p.21).

2. -- There are bills and accounts, e.g. used in Giovanna Frosini, Il
cibo e i signori (Florence, 14th century), or in Ulf Dirlmeier's book
about the income and the cost of living in the cities of southern
Germany in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. In addition, there is much
to find in the archives about food in official contexts, though not
everything is transcribed yet, let alone translated or commented on. See
for example:
http://134.76.229.28/duderstadt/ab/reihe68/html_seiten/7121b001.r.html
Basically, this kind of source reveals what was bought, on which
occasion, in which quantities, and for what price. Hard work, however.

3. -- There are diaries and chronicles with reports about meals and
menues. Fouquet mentions: Helmut Hundsbichler: Reise, Gastlichkeit und
Nahrung im Spiegel der Reisetagebücher des Paolo Santonio. (1485-1487).
Diss. Wien 1979; somebody recently mentioned the menu, that was served,
when Charles V. came to some city in southern Germany. (I took a note
somewhere; could look it up.)

4. -- Apart from the menu sections in the cookbooks already mentioned
(e.g. Rumpolt), there is the work of Messisbugo (1557), a book with many
menues, e.g. the "Cena che fece il Conte Galeazzo Estense Tassone allo
Illustrißimo & Eccellentißimo Signor Duca nostro, ... & fu di dominica
nel Carneuale del 1537" (25b).

5. -- There is Jean Louis Flandrins 'Structure des menus francais et
anglais aux XIVe et XVe siecles' (accents left out), in which he
analyses the menues of the Menagier, of Ms. Harley 279 and of the menues
in the Antiquitates culinariae.

6. -- The dietetic texts also say something about the order, in which
different food stuffs should be served.

Thomas