[Sca-cooks] Period German menus

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 8, 2007, at 10:20 AM, Barbara Benson wrote:

>> Putting it another way: in a herding economy, cows are wealth and
>> power, and when Rumpolt speaks of a feast for a farmer, he's
>> presumably not talking about serfs or even tenants.
>>
>> Adamantius
>
> Greetings,
>
> While I do not necessarily agree that the "Feasts for Farmers" menus
> are jokes perpetrated by  M. Rumpoldt; I also have to disagree with
> Adamantius on this one (teh horror).
>
> At the beginning of each menu there is a woodcut depicting the
> banquets in question (some of the images are used multiple times)
> that, in keeping with the rest of the manuscript, is clearly meant to
> imply what is to come in the following section. Just as there is a
> picture of a little baby cow preceeding the veal chapter - so is there
> a picture of the aforementioned farmer sitting at his table where the
> feast is presumably to occur.
>
> The woodcuts start out with the depiction of the Emperor dining in
> grand opulance and decend in fancy-pantsness with each subsequent drop
> in rank of the people being served. The woodcut depicting the farmer
> clearly shows an individual who is pretty far down on the social
> ladder. It isn't quite a depiction of a pesant - he has walls and a
> table and shoes and such. But he is the only person depicted as dining
> alone in what appears to be his home.
>
> All of the other woodcuts show people feasting and being served in
> groups and having a grand ole time - albiet some more fancily than
> others. But Mr. Farmer guy - well he looks pretty depressed.
>
> When I get the opportunity to get to my scanner I will scan in a
> sampling of woodcuts and let everyone here make their own judgements.
> But I am afraid I cannot buy into some sort of Rancher Baron in this
> circumstance.

Okay. I just suggested it as a possible alternative to the "Rumpolt  
must be joking because farmers are poor" theory.

Perhaps when we actually see the menus in question, things will  
become clearer.

But doesn't everyone look depressed in German woodcuts?

Adamantius



"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04