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

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

Jim Chevallier wrote:
> 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';"
[SNIP URL]
>
> 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.
[SNIP very cooool URL]
>
> 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?

Well, i am going to be of NO use to you, but you have been of great use to me, in my studies of Ottoman dining. 

Jerome Maurand, who accompanied the French envoy Polin de la Garde, was received at the Ottoman palace in August, 1544, and was entitled to the dinner served to the attendants of the ambassadors. In his description of the feast (which i translated from the 16th c. French) he mentions "longiera". I could tell what it was, but didn't know if he was using a French word or a modified form of an Ottoman word.

In Maurand's situation, each diner had an individual napkin on which to wipe his fingers. Ottomans often put that - which was longer than it was wide, which some Europeans designated a "towel" - over one shoulder. Then across *all* the laps of *all* the diners at one sofra - a tabouret table, some of which could seat 10, sitting on the floor, of course - was put a "longiera" (as Maurand spelled it), so they all shared it and wore it, so to speak. There was also a separate cover on the table, also called "sofra", which could be cloth or vermillion leather, but the "longiera" was in the collective diners' laps.

Thanks to you, i now know the source of the word and its European meaning. I still don't know the 15th or 16th c. Ottoman word. And i can't help you in European settings.

But, again, thanks for clearing up this mystery which has been haunting me.

Urtatim al-Qurtubiyya