[Sca-cooks] Re: sumptuary laws

[she not]

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/middleages/sumptuary/sumptuary.html
> 

It might if you are thinking nutritionally.
However, if you were noble enough to be
entertaining a cardinal, I doubt if you would
want to cut corners like that. Churchmen were
usually very conscious of their position and 
might take offence if you offered only 6 or 7
courses when they were deserving of 9. ...This kind of sumptuary law, if it is correct,
appears to be aimed at the nobility and not the
lower classes, IMHO.

Huette

Sumptuary laws were enacted to limit conspicuous consumption and to protect the privileges of the nobility.  (Clothes makyth man and all that) Thus they were often specifically aimed at merchants and other commoners who were able to spend as much or more than the privileged class they imitated. 

 The point of getting around sumptuary laws wasn't "cutting corners", but finding ways to get away with MORE than the  law allowed- hence the grete pye, which comprised a whole course in one allowable (arguably- and boy was it argued!) dish. Many areas hired persons to check ornamentation, colors, etc. on festival days to make sure the wearer had no more than he or she was entitled to- some would  even clip off illegal buttons on the spot!  the defense was often spirited, ingenious and amusing..reading the resulting legal proceedings is a  good way to document specific fashions in time/place, btw.

The collected Medici letters have several interesting food-related bits: one description of a wedding ca 1480s includes the usual mind-boggling list of foodstuffs brought in for it, makes several approving comments on the ostentatious "modesty" of the meals served, adding "and there was never more than one roast." (in a course). As the city's leading family, the medici were being praised for restricting themselves to display  appropriate for the commoners they were in comparison to less powerful and more vulgar houses.
gisele



"all men are intrinsical rascals, and I am only sorry that not being a dog I can't bite them."   Lord Byron
		
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