[Sca-cooks] Magninus Mediolanensis on sauces: Regimen / Latin, Irish

[Laura C. Minnick]

On 11/28/2010 6:09 PM, Elise Fleming wrote:
> Liutgard wrote:
>
> > But in my
> >readings I found something rather amusing about the great Charles-
> >apparently he had a favorite tablecloth that after dinner, he would
> >gather up and throw into the fire. And pull it out again, as a party
> >trick of sorts. It seems it was asbestos. one would hope that he didn't
> >accidentally grab the wrong cloth on occasion...
>
> Sorry to burst the bubble, but Nichola Fletcher, in her book 
> "Charlemagne's Tablecloth", did some extensive research on that fabled 
> tablecloth.  At the end of the book she details what was looked at, 
> researched, and checked.  Donal Bullough, Emeritus Professor of St 
> Andrews University finally confirmed: "Alas! Charlemagne's 'asbestos 
> tablecloth' is the purest of pure myths, one of the many that were 
> added to the ones inherited from the Middle Ages in the late 
> eithteenth century and early nineteenth centuries, particularly in 
> Frnce - by-products of the Enlightenment and its Napoleonic 
> reflections, as the 'scientific' element in this one suggests."
>
> Alys K.

!! You know, I even have that book, and I don't remember that! Well, 
just goes to show you, cute 'gee-whiz' stuff usually doesn't pan out. 
(Might be interesting to further explore the origins, but I have other 
stuff to keep me busy at the moment...)

Liutgard

-- 
"It is our choices Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."  -Albus Dumbledore

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