[Sca-cooks] Medieval questioniare - tablecothes, buffets and tisane

[Adele de Maisieres]

Suey wrote:
> 1. The tablecloth first introduced in Europe was by Ziryab, the Kurd, 
> founder of the first conservatory of music which was in Cordoba. His 
> tablecloth was leather. The surnape did not exist then on the 9th C. 
> Muslim Hispanos were instructed to clean their knives and hands on the 
> flatbread provided. Spaniards did not have trenchers. 

I don't think that's entirely correct.  Ziryab (Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn 
Nafi) may have introduced (or re-introduced) the tablecloth to 
9th-century al-Andalus, but a very quick look through my own books 
yields earlier examples of tablecloths in Europe.  For example Roy 
Strong's _Feast_ has a sixth-century Roman mosaic of the Last Supper 
served on a tablecloth. 

-- 
Adele de Maisieres

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Habeo metrum - musicamque,
hominem meam. Expectat alium quid?
-Georgeus Gershwinus
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