[Sca-cooks] Runners/longieres instead of napkins?

JIMCHEVAL at aol.com JIMCHEVAL at aol.com
Fri Jun 28 21:07:02 PDT 2013


Terence Scully says that medieval diners wiped their fingers on a special  
extra table cloth, set on top of the normal one for exactly that  purpose:

"The main cloth was, in French, the nappe, and the sanitary  cloth was 
properly the longiere or 'runner';"
_http://books.google.com/books?id=i5h7_HXPHvwC&pg=PA170&dq=inauthor:scully+r
unner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=plrOUauEBaWsiQL6j4CoBw&ved=0CDgQuwUwAQ#v=onepage&q=inaut
hor%3Ascully%20runner&f=false_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=i5h7_HXPHvwC&pg=PA170&dq=inauthor:scully+runner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=plrOUauEBaWsiQL6j4CoBw&ve
d=0CDgQuwUwAQ#v=onepage&q=inauthor:scully%20runner&f=false) 


This is certainly not impossible; the eighteenth century English  used the 
tablecloth instead of napkins. But I've seen no period reference to  this 
practice and most definitions of longiere just say that it was longer than  it 
was wide; one mention in fact is of a "longeria" with napkins, somewhat  
undermining the idea that it was used in their place.
http://books.google.com/books?id=wugIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA447&dq=longeria&hl=en&sa=
X&ei=7lzOUeCvCqiAiwKs04HQDw&ved=0CMQCEOgBMC0#v=onepage&q&f=false
 
 Also Scully seems to have a pretty plain idea of a tablecloth when,  in 
the early centuries at least, they could be pretty ornate.

A search  through the archives shows nothing about a runner or longiere. 
Has anyone  encountered any period reference to such a practice?


Jim  Chevallier

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



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