[Sca-cooks] what the Franks were eating

[Laura C. Minnick]

> It is an inventory of Charlemagne's property kept on the estate, not 
> the personal property of the staff, so there may have been other 
> towels not listed.  Since the towel is listed with coverings for one 
> bed and one tablecloth, it suggests to me that these are the linens to 
> be used for guests who were travelling light and fast, rather than 
> households that would be supported by a baggage train.
>
> Bear
>
That's pretty much the conclusion I've come to. Charles dragged a lot of 
people around with him, so he likely had that sort of stuff with him. 
(It appears that he took the wife and kids pretty much wherever he went- 
including campaigning- until fairly late in his lafe, when he settled 
the family in the palace at Aachen. I would imagine that they had a lot 
of towels in their baggage!)

Do you suppose they also brought more cooking equipment with them? I 
noticed that there didn't seem to be much in the way of pots and pans 
and cutlery. Lots of livestock though.

The food issue is only one of the things I'm working on- also deep into 
a network of monasteries that supported Charles' educational projects, 
contemporary theology, the location of one of his wives (if she existed- 
a couple of recent scholars doubti, which is not consistent with the 
primary records), etc etc etc. The Frankish 'rabbit hole' is a veritable 
warren, and I've been doing a lot of 'oooh! Look at this!' and getting 
distracted...

Liutgard


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