[Sca-cooks] Aquamanile - What is it?

[Stefan li Rous]

Mordonna mentioned:
> I thought I knew, as my Grandmother always called her pottery
> hand-washing basin an aquamanile.  Then you guys started talking about
> harts and cats.  So I looked it up.  Most dictionaries say it is an
> ewer or pitcher.  However, the New Catholic Dictionary says it's the
> basin a priest washes his hands in during mass...
> The latin means water basin...
> I suppose it is another of those words whose meaning has emigrated from
> it's original object to another closely associated with it.

Interesting. Either a pitcher or a basin, but in either case meant for 
washing hands. I suspect there were just simple pitcher shapes used as 
aquamaniles. However, the fancier, animal shaped ones would likely be 
the ones more likely to be kept and cherished and passed on.

For those interested in more details on these, you might want to take a 
look at this file:
aquamaniles-msg   (12K)  5/25/02    Fancy period jugs to hold water for 
washing.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/aquamaniles-msg.html

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****