[Sca-cooks] John de Garlande on food and everyday life in 13th century Paris

emilio szabo emilio_szabo at yahoo.it
Wed Mar 18 11:56:37 PDT 2009


Many thanks both to Bear and to Johnna for your great input!

The dictionarium of John of Garlande is a great source. The edition in the Wright volume includes some glosses of French and English commentators of the 13th and 15th centuries.

Wright says that manuscipts of the dictionarium were common both in England and on the continent.

In respect of food and cookery, I found passages dealing with 

-- medical questions of nutrition and digestion,


-- manufacturers, producing kitchen utensils (e.g. "Vidi hodie institorem habentem ante se cultellos ad mensam, mansaculos [interlinear gloss: trencher-knyvys] ...", Today I saw a merchant having with him kitchen knives, carving-knives [trencher-knyvys] ....


-- sorts of wine, announced by street-criers (also warning of diluted wine); sorts of fruits (also warning of vendors selling unripe fruits), sorts of cheese, sorts of bread, sorts of pastries ("... vendendo clericis pastillos de carnibus porcinis, et pullinis, et de anguillis, cum pipere, exponendo tartas, et flaones fartos caseis molibus ...", selling to the clerics pastries made of porc meat, of chicken meat, of eels, with pepper, showing tarts and flans filled with soft cheese, ...), ...


-- people selling wafers in the streets at night, cooks seeling food that is insufficiently tempered ("... male diste(m)peratis ...") etc. etc.


There is much more on everyday life, e.g. the author points out that the glove makers usually deceive the Paris scholars. He describes or at least mentions the different products of manufacterers, hats, bows, needles, furs, ...

Now for the passage about placentae (which Wright translates as cake). As far as I can see on page 127 the different explanations to placenta are due to the commentators. The text of the dictionarius goes like this:


"Placente, flamicie, et ingnacie jacent ad fenstras augxionariorum ..." (page 126).


After that, printed in small letters, meaning that the passage comes from the commentaries:


"Placente dicuntur Gallice simeniaus [simeneus]." According to the footnote on page 120, the small passages are from a commentator in a 13th century Paris manuscript, while the passages in [ ] come from the (English) commentator of the 13th century MS. Cotton. Titus D.xx from the British Museum.



Thanks again for providing this wonderful source on food and everyday life in 13th century Paris!


E.


      


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