[Sca-Cooks] Wikipedia article on Medieval Cuisine

[Terry Decker]

>> In some seriousness though, Poland and some of the other Eastern
>> European countries hadn't really embraced the Renaissance yet.  So,
>> they could be considered still in the Middle Ages.
>
> Um, er. I beg to differ. By the 16th century, Poland was in heavy
> contact with Italy and definitely had embraced the Renaissance.
> (Machiavellian politicking and a form of democracy was in fact their
> downfall...)
>
> -- 
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

A great deal depends on what you use to define the period.  The Middle Ages 
can be defined temporally (the term Middle Ages was coined toward the end of 
the 15th Century, IIRC) or socially (based on changes in feudalism and the 
manorial system, etc.).  The trappings of the Renaissance may have arrived 
in Poland in the 16th Century, but a modified manorial system and serfdom 
were still in force in the 18th Century.  Was Poland Modern or Medieval? 
The point is debatable.

Bear