[Sca-cooks] Online Paper on the use of spices in Medieval Europe

[Pat Griffin]

You are correct, my expectations were high.  I guess my question is, are his
tables good enough to be sources for an A&S entry?

Lady Anne du Bosc Known as Mordonna The Cook

Mka Pat Griffin

Thorngill, Meridies

mka Montgomery, AL

-----Original Message-----
From: Doc [mailto:edoard at medievalcookery.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 12:59 PM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Online Paper on the use of spices in Medieval
Europe


--- Pat Griffin <ldyannedubosc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Spices and Their Costs in Medieval Europe
> 
> By Prof. John H. Munro, Dept. of Economy, University
> of Toronto
> 
> www.economics.utoronto.ca/Munro5/SPICES1.htm

.... 
 
> However, I find that most of the rest of the paper
> is sort of shaky on
> documentation.
....

> Most of his other
> facts all seem to be based
> on only one or two sources, and some of that
> documentation is just a bit
> questionable.  At the end his bibliography only
> lists three sources. 

If you take another look at the sources he lists, I
believe you will find that the last source is actually
three citations for separate primary sources that are
all run together.  From a brief look, these sources
are books of account, which are excellent sources for
a paper such as this - they are usually very exacting,
detailing precise quantities of goods purchased for a
given time period along with the price paid.

I think you may be misunderstanding this "article" and
its intended purpose.  It is the notes from one of
Professor Munro's lectures - not an academic paper -
and it is primarily presenting the results of research
on the consumption rates and comparative prices of
spices and other goods (the title is misleading).  I
believe the recipes and other information was put
there to give the data some context.

Given that purpose, the three primary sources are
plenty, and his tables of data are incredibly useful
for understanding just how expensive (or inexpensive)
spices were.

> I'm really disappointed in
> Professor of Economic History Munro.

I think you may want to reconsider your expectations. 
Professor Munro is obviously an economist, not a
culinary historian.

- Doc




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