[Sca-cooks] Magninus Mediolanensis on sauces: Regimen / Latin, Irish
Laura C. Minnick
lcm at jeffnet.org
Sun Nov 28 20:28:10 PST 2010
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
~~~Follow my Queenly perambulations at: http://slugcrossings.blogspot.com/
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list