[Sca-cooks] Collections of canons from Church councils.

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

There are various reasons for food historians to be interested in the  
details of the various Church councils (synods): fasting rules, rules on  
Christians eating with Jews, interdiction of horse meat, a mention of taverns in  
the ninth century, etc. Not that this stuff is necessarily easy to find, but 
 it's there for those care to dig. And just browsing these can be  
intriguing.

Unfortunately the most complete collection I know is in  Latin:

Delectus actorum Ecclesiae universalis seu nova summa Conciliorum  ..., 
Volume  1
http://atilf.atilf.fr/dendien/scripts/tlfiv5/advanced.exe?8;s=4044264045;

Even  this is missing at least one key article - which fortunately can be 
found in  this subset from the Carolingien period:

Concilia aevi Karolini  [742-842]. 1
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k952415.r=.langEN


Luckily there is at least one collection in French:

Les  conciles: généraux et particuliers
By Paul Guérin
http://books.google.com/books?id=fu88AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=edition
s:zgEE51o-OK4C&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tOfvUYDOFI-VjAKY_oG4BQ&ved=0CDoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepag
e&q&f=false



And now I've even found one (I think less complete) in  English:

Hefele-A History of the Councils of the Church: From the  Original 
Documents, Volume 3
http://books.google.com/books?id=yaJsAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=edition
s:ZuRMU0Axxk0C&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VubvUab5L6KOigLDyIC4Ag&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepag
e&q&f=false


These are all in several volumes and Google Books is quirky about which it  
makes available (I've downloaded all five volumes of Hefele, but only see 
three  available just now). So keep trying.
 
Also, if you do find useful material in French or English, it's always good 
 to try and find the Latin and decipher it. Translations can be approximate 
at  times.


Jim Chevallier

Comparing early and late medieval food in  France
http://www.chezjim.com/food/pre-v/comparisons.html