The Regular Canons and the Use of Food, c. 1200–1350
We are greatly handicapped by the lack of material available to us for this period. By and large, household accounts which provide gross details of quotidian diet elude us. However, to recover the everyday diet of the canons, one useful approach is to examine corrodies and study the assumptions there, by way of analogy, with what can be inferred as normal consumption by canons.
City and Countryside in Medieval England
An impressive array of data, ranging over the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, has been collected by two full-time researchers, James Galloway and Margaret Murphy. Of primary importance for the project are demesne farming accounts and inquisitions post mortem (detailing manorial land and other assets, especially again those of the demesne), both of which sources survive in very large numbers for the period under review. Also, the project incorpor- ates large amounts of data from urban records, particularly those dealing with merchants who were prominent in organizing London’s food supply.
Body Mass and Body Mass Index estimation in medieval Switzerland
The aim of the present study is to test the available BM estimation formulae based on the femoral head breadth (Auerbach and Ruff 2004, Grine et al. 1995, McHenry 1992, Ruff et al. 1991) on skeletal populations from medieval Switzerland and to reconstruct the BM and the BMI within a specific temporal and geographical setting.
Apicius: Aspects of incorporating a cookbook of Early Middle Ages (8th and 9th centuries)
Curiously, although Apicius has been associated to Roman historical context by historians, its earliest manuscripts belong to the Early Middle Ages.
Animal keeping and the use of animal products in medieval Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany)
This thesis deals with the faunal remains from several excavations in the centre of the medieval town of Emden (Lower Saxony, Germany; Figure 1-1). The aim of this thesis is to answer questions concerning the development of animal husbandry and the use of animal products in the medieval period.
Greenland’s Viking settlers gorged on seals
A Danish-Canadian research team has demonstrated the Norse society did not die out due to an inability to adapt to the Greenlandic diet: an isotopic analysis of their bones shows they ate plenty of seals.
Environmental impact of the Baltic Crusades: deforestation, animal extinction, dogs no longer on the menu
A multidisciplinary project seeks to understand the environmental impact of the Baltic Crusades. Horses, for example, aided the Christians in battle, while the castles the Crusaders built decimated forests.
Tasting Histories Lecture: “Seasonal and Local Dining in the Middle Ages”
This was a paper given at the University of Toronto by Yale Professor, Paul freedman, on food during the Middle Ages and Early Modern period.
Hot Holiday Reads!
Put down those turkey left-overs and check out some of these hot holiday reads!
Medieval Food – Come Dine with St. Patrick
Ireland in the 5th century: No restaurants, no take-aways, no street vendors or pre-prepared meals.
You Are What You Eat: Hildegard of Bingen’s Viriditas
Hildegard argues in the beginning of Physica that humans become what they eat.
Dining at King’s College in the 15th century
Perhaps unsurprisingly, fish and seafood formed a major component in the diet of the fellows and scholars.
Wine and Medicine from Hippocrates to the Renaissance
Until the mid-1300s, brandy was regarded primarily as a medicinal beverage. Its reputation increased in the fourteenth century as a prophylactic against the plague.
Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament – a Review
What is Medieval Times? Medievalists.net decided to see for ourselves and go to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament in Toronto, Canada. Here is our review of the show:
Fruit of the Womb: Prenatal Food in Renaissance Italy
One of the crucial tenants of humoral theory is the belief that females are of a colder and wetter disposition than the hotter, drier nature of males. To achieve optimal health the humors needed to be in perfect balance, as seen in all recommendations for food, drink, preparation and even environment.
Labor Markets After the Black Death: Landlord Collusion and the Imposition of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
The differences in the imposition of serfdom led to different economic and political effects for the peasantry in Europe. In Western Europe, wages rose, grain prices fell, and the consumption of meat, dairy products, and beer increased. More and more peasants moved into a widening “middle class” that could afford to buy manufactured goods.
Food and Cooking during the Mamluk Era: Social and Political Implications
The preparation of food was of interest mainly to the top echelon of the Mamluk ruling elite, to members of the civilian upper class who were able to cook food at home, and to the professional cooks who kept shops catering to the vast urban lower classes.
Ritual feasting in Iron Age Ireland
In medieval Ireland a system known as coe provided such a facility. This was a legal obligation to provide ‘winter hospitality for [a] lord’, but it also applied to high-ranking clerics, doctors and judges.
From Wine to Beer: Changing Patterns of Alcoholic Consumption, and Living Standards, in Later Medieval Flanders, 1300 – 1550
The basic problem with the ‘hop’ thesis is that the Flemish evidence for the relative shift from wine to beer consumption comes too late. My primary sources are the annual revenues from sales of excise tax- farms on wine and beer consumption recorded in the treasurers’ accounts of two towns: Bruges and Aalst.
From Monasteries to Multinationals (and Back): A Historical Review of the Beer Economy
With the spread of his Holy Roman Empire around 800 AD, Charlemagne built many monasteries across Europe, many of which became centres of brewing.
Contributions of Medieval Food Manuals to Spain‘s Culinary Heritage
Before Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–68) revolutionized printing with his discovery of moveable type, manuscripts of collected recipes from the Iberian Peninsula grew out of several traditions. Most notable are two manuscripts directed toward the urban aristocracy from the waning years of the Almohad dynasty, two works from the aristocracy of Aragon and Castile, and one woman‘s manual that weaves together recipes for food, home remedies, cosmetics, and general hygiene.
Wine, the Physician, and the Drinker Late Medieval Medical Views on Wine’s Uses, Pleasures, and Problems
Why do people alternate between accolades and censure about the powers they perceive in wine?
The Medieval Cookbook and The Classical Cookbook published in revised editions
The Getty Museum and British Museum have published two cookbooks for those wanting to try recipes dating back to the Middle Ages or ancient times.
Loaves and fishes: a stable isotope reconstruction of diet in medieval Greece
The historical sources on medieval Greek diet provide extensive information on the identity of foods consumed, but are less informative regarding the proportions in which they were consumed.