[Sca-cooks] Feast at Mategrifon

[Johnna Holloway]

I gather this is your blog:

http://siquillya.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/eating-and-drinking-in-king-richard-is-messina/

So the date would be Christmas 1190. This offers the possible tie-in to the book Travels with a Medieval Queen by Mary Taylor Simeti.
"The medieval queen in question is Constance of Hauteville, daughter of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily, wife of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, and mother to the Emperor Frederick II. In 1194, at the age of forty, Constance journeyed from Germany south to reconquer her father's throne." 
You might take a look at it for what it has to say about feasts and foods in Sicily.

Liber de coquina-- Thomas Gloning has the digital 
Liber de coquina ubi diuersitates ciborum docentur (saec. XIV.)
-- Text based upon: Mulon, Marianne: Deux traités inédits d'art culinaire médiéval. In: Bulletin philologique et historique (jusqu'à 1610) du Comité des Travaux historiques et scientifiques. Année 1968: Actes du 93e Congrès national des Sociétés savantes tenu à Tours. Volume I: Les problèmes de l'alimentation. Paris 1971, 369-435; the text of the Liber de coquina on p. 396-420.
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/mul2-lib.htm

 See also the http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/mul1-tra.htm

Before dismissing the Anglo-Norman recipe manuscripts which offer recipes dated from the mid-late 13th century. their
major point of interest would be that they represent the earliest collection of English recipes. 
The languages vary but the manuscripts are a mix of Latin, French, and English. 
Since this is an A&S challenge, should you provide clear reasons as to why you are not using them?
Will your audience expect to see them? They are well-known.

If you want to emphasize only the French background of Richard I, then perhaps you should acquire and read 

Bruno Laurioux's Le règne de Taillevent. Paris 1997 which talks about the early French manuscripts.

You might also try and see Habeeb Salloum's chapter on "Sicily" in Regional Cuisines of Medieval Europe: A Book of Essays.  Edited by Melitta Weiss Adamson. New York; London: Routledge, 2002.

Johnnae




 


On Oct 2, 2012, at 3:57 PM, Christiane wrote:

> Hello the list,
> 
> For an A&S challenge in November, I am presenting some dishes that might have been served at high table for King Richard I's Christmas feast at the fortress of Mategrifon, which was outside of Messina, Sicily. He was holding the feast for King Philip I of France, who he was on Crusade with, and Sicily's King Tancred of Lecce, who had signed a truce with him. snipped

> So...first, is there an English version of recipes in the 13th century Liber coquinaria? With Latin, I am just guessing, based on my Italian. It's about 100 years later but it's from Southern Italy, and associated with Charles II of Anjou, so I'd be interested in taking a look at it and pondering it.
> 
> Is there a medieval version of the Sicilian farsumagru, a huge roll of beef stuffed with sausage, hardboiled eggs, prosciutto, bread crumbs, and cheeses? I have heard all sorts of theories of the origin of this dish, and the most plausible is that it's based on French cuisine. I'd like to see how far back it could possibly go. 
> snipped
> And I do know about the two Anglo-Norman recipe manuscripts, except Richard was far more French in his outlook than English.