by Jack Turner
SALT, MAGGOTS AND ROT?
Jeanne d’Evreux’s spice larder is mentioned by A. Franklin, La vie privée d’autrefois, vol. 3 (Paris: Plon, 1889), 44–6. On Humphrey Stafford see Christopher Dyer, Standards of Living in the Later Middle Ages: Social Change in England, c. 1200–1520 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 63.
Recent decades have witnessed a reappraisal of medieval cuisine and a reinterpretation of its spices. Some of the best works on the topic are B.A. Henisch, Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976); Bruno Laurioux, Manger au Moyen ge (Paris: Hachette, 2002); Terence Scully, The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997); Food and Eating in Medieval Europe, edited by M. Carlin and J.T. Rosenthal (London: Hambledon, 1998); P.W. Hammond, Food and Feast in Medieval England (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1993); Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin and Massimo Montanari (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999); Charles Cooper, The English Table in History and Literature (London: S. Low, Marston, 1929); J. Harvey, ‘Vegetables in the Middle Ages’, Garden History, 12 (1984); Massimo Montanari, L’alimentazione contadina nell’alto medievo (Naples: Liguori, 1979); Toby Peterson, ‘Arab Influence on Western European Cooking’, Journal of Medieval History, 6 (1980), 317–41.
On the subject of spices in particular, see Bruno Laurioux, ‘De l’usage des épices dans l’alimentation médiévale’, Médiévales 5 (1983), 15–31 Some primary sources mentioning spices can be found in T. Austin, Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, Early English Text Society, Original Series 91 (1888); Babees Book, edited by F. Furnivall, Early English Text Society, Original Series 32 (1868); Terence Scully, The Viznoier of Taillevant (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1988); Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fifteenth Century, edited by Constance B. Hieatt and Sharon Butler, Early English Text Society, New Series 8 (1985); The Goodman of Paris, translated by Eileen Power (London: Routledge, 1928).
For some representative literary references to spices in food and wine see Eustache Deschamps, Oeuvres complètes, edited by Gaston Raynaud (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1891), vol. 3, 75–7; vol. 7, 186–8, 218–19; A Volume of Vocabularies, edited by Thomas Wright (London: Privately Printed, 1856), 127; E. Barbazan, Fabliaux et Contes des poètes françois (Paris: E. Walée, 1808), vol. 1, 153; G.G. Coulton, Chaucer and His England (New York: Russell and Russell, 1957), 91; Jean Molinet, Le faicts et dictz de Jean Molinet, edited by Noël Dupire (Société des anciens textes français: Paris, 1937), vol. 2, 752–4; G.G. Coulton, Medieval Panorama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1938), 456; Conrad Gesner, Trésor de Euonime, Philiâtre des remèdes secretz (Lyon: Balthazar Arnoullet, 1555); Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, edited by I. Gollanz, Early English Text Society, Original Series 210 (1940); F. Rabelais, Oeuvres complètes, edited by Mireille Houchon (Paris: Gallimard, 1994); Achille Jubinal, Nouveau receuil de contes, dits, fabliaux (Paris: Édouard Pannier, 1839), vol. 1, 300; King Ponthus and the Fair Sidone, edited by F.J. Mather, in Publications of the Modem Language Association of America 12.2 (1897), 61; Montaiglon et Raynaud, Recueil général, vol. 2, 142; Migne, vol. 172, col. 1138; vol. 207, col. 47–8, 1155. On spices’ role in preserving wine, see John Trevisa’s Translation of Bartholemeus Anglicus’ De Propriettibus Rerum, edited by M.L. Seymour et al. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975–88), lib. 7, cap. 187.
THE REGICIDAL LAMPREY AND THE DEADLY BEAVER
King Henry’s lamprey-induced demise is recounted by Henry of Huntingdon, The History of the English People, 1000–1154, translated by Diana Greenway (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 64; ‘Gesta Stephani regis Anglorum’, in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II and Richard, Rolls Series, edited by R. Howlett, vol. 82 (London: Longman, 1884), 14.
The medieval blurring of gastronomy and dietetics is well discussed by Terence Scully, ‘The Opusculum de Saporibus of Magninus Mediolanensis’, Medium Aevum, vol. 54, no. 1 (1985), 178–207. See also his Art of Cookery. Lynn Thorndike, ‘A Medieval Sauce-book’, Speculum, 9, no. 2 (1934), 183–90, contains several illustrative recipes and recommendations. John C. Super, ‘El concepto de la nutrición en Juan de Aviñón’, Medicina Española, 82 (1983), 167–73, is a revealing case-study. Also useful is M. Weiss Adamson, Medieval Dietetics (New York: P. Lang, 1995).
Some primary sources pertaining to the subject are Le régime du corps de Maître Aldebrandin de Sienne, texte français du XIIIe siècle, edited by Louis Landouzy et Roger Pépin (Paris: Honoré Champion, 1911), 124; Three Prose Versions of the Secretum Secretorum, edited by R. Steele, Early English Text Society, Extra Series 74 (1898), 75; also Furnivall, Babees, 50. On the perils of beaver, see Edward Topsell, The History of Four-Footed Beasts and Serpents (London: G. Sawbridge, 1658), 36; Laurence Andrew, The Noble Lyfe & Natures of Man, of bestes, serpentys, fowles, & fishes (Antwerp: Jan van Doesborgh, c.1521), published in facsimile edition as An Early English Version of the Hortus Sanitatis (London: B. Quatrich, 1954), 146. Erasmus’ observations on the English diet are from J. Jortin, The Life of Erasmus (London: R. Taylor and J. White, 1808), vol. 3, 44. On the intersection of humoral medicine, spices and cuisine, see R. Fleischakker, Lanfrank’s ‘Science of Cirurgie’, Early English Text Society, Original Series 102 (1894), 76; Secretum Secretorum: Nine English Versions, edited by M.A. Manzalaoui, Early English Text Society, Extra Series 276 (1977), 3–9; Sir John Harrington’s translation of the Regimen sanitatis salerni: The School of Salernum (Ente provinciale per il turismo: Salerno, 1959), 70; Le Livre des Simples Médecines, edited and translated by Carmélia Opsomer et al. (Antwerp: De Schutter, 1984); on Lenten variations, see Anonimo Genovese, Poesie, edited by Luciano Cocito (Rome: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1970), 228; Book of Vices and Virtues, edited by W. Nelson Francis, Early English Text Society, Original Series 217 (1942), 53.
The spices of the Avignon papacy are catalogued by H. Aliquot, ‘Les épices à la table des papes d’Avignon au XlVe siècle’, in Manger et Boire au Moyen Age. Actes du Colloque de Nice, 15–17 octobre, 1982 (Centre d’Études médiévales de Nice: Les Belles Lettres, 1984). Spicers to English royalty are discussed by G.E. Trease, ‘Spicers and Apothecaries of the Royal Household in the Reign of Henry III, Edward I, and Edward II’, Nottingham Medieval Studies, 3 (1959), 19–52; ‘Ordinances of the Household of Edward IV, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London (1790). On spice consumption in a representative noble household, see The Household Book of Alice de Bryene, edited by Vincent Redgrave (Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and Natural History, 2nd edn, 1984). Burton’s quote is from his Anatomy of Melancholy, edited by Holbrook Jackson (New York: New York Review of Books, 2001).
KEEPING UP WITH THE PERCYS
The description of Henrique’s spice-bender is from Crónica da Tomada de Ceuta, edited by Reis Brasil (Lisbon: Publicações Europa-America, 1992), 100–1. The subject of dining and rank is discussed by Bruno Laurioux, ‘Table et hiérarchie sociale à la fin du Moyen âge’, in Du manuscrit à table: essais sur la cuisine au moyen âge et répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinarires, edited by Carole Lambert (Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1992), 87. On spice plates see J. Gairdner, The Paston Letters AD 1422-(Edinburgh: J. Grant, 1904), vol. 3, 167; also Testamenta Eboracensia. Publications of the Surtees Society, vol. 30 (1855), 17. The affair of the court of solace is recounted by Rolandini Patavini, De factis in Marchia, lib. I, cap. 13, in Ludovico Muratori, Rerum italicarum scriptores (Mediolani: Ex Typographia Societatis Palatinae, 1723–51), vol. 8, col. 180–1. Some illustrative primary sources are Libro de los Enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor, edited by H. Knust (Leipzig: Seele, 1900), 140; Jacob’s Well: An Englisbt [sic] Treatise on the Cleansing of Man’s Conscience, ca. 1440, edited by Arthur Brandeis, Early English Text Society, Original Series 115 (1900), 144. On Van Maerlant see Pleij, Dreaming, 97. On correspondence, see E. Martène, Veterum Scripto-rum et monumentum historicorum (Par
is: Montalant, 1729), vol. 4, col. 244–5. For Henry V, Alberico Benedicenti, Malati, Medici e Farmacisti: storia dei rimedi traverso i secoli e delle teorie che ne spiegano l’azione sull’organismo (Milan: Ulrico Hoeph, 1947), 391. On the great ship see Documents Illustrative of the History of Scotland, edited by J. Stevenson (1870), vol. 1, 149, 186–92, cited by Michael Prestwich, Edward I (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 361. For a sense of spices’ noble connotations see William Caxton: Dialogues in French and English, c.1483, edited by Henry Bradley, Early English Text Society, Extra Series 79 (1900), 304; ‘The Debate of the Body and the Soul’, in The Chief Middle English Poets, edited by J.L. Weston (London: G.G. Harrap, 1914), 304.
The relationship of the English crown to its spicers is covered by Nightingale, Medieval Mercantile Community, 52, 71, 122.A revealing source on dining at the court of Henry II is Urhanus Magnus Danielis Becclesiensis, edited by J.G. Smyly (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, 1939). For Genoese boasting, see Cocito, Poesie, 563–5. On ranking by spice, see Hammond, Food and Feast, 114; also Liber Cure Cocorum, edited by R. Morris (Transactions of the Philological Society: London, 1862), 42. The economic data is from F. Flückiger and D. Hanbury, Pharmacographia, 2nd edn (London: Macmillan, 1879), 503, 578, 635; also Nightingale, Medieval Mercantile Community, 59. The topic of famine is covered by Camporesi, Bread of Dreams: Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Europe, translated by David Gentilcore (Cambridge: Polity in Association with Basil Blackwell, 1989). Pepper’s fall from grace is charted by Bruno Laurioux, ‘Et le poivre conquit France …,’ Histoire, 67 (1984), 79–80. On the ‘seasoning of rustics’, see De conser-vanda bona vaktudine, liber scholae salemitanae (Paris: Lud. Billaine, 1786), 300. The Montaigne quote is from The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, edited by M.A. Screech (London: Penguin, 1987), 300; Froissart’s from Simon Schama, A History of Britain (London: BBC, 2000), vol. 1, 248. The text of London Lickpenny is reprinted by Eleanor P. Hammond in Anglia (1898), 414.
4: The Spice of Life
THE PHARAOH’S NOSE
Ramses’ autopsy is discussed by Lionel Balout, C. Roubet and C. Descroches-Noblecourt, La Momie de Ramses II: Contribution Scientifique à l’Égyptologie (Paris: Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations, 1976–77), 87, 174.
On the subject of Roman and early medieval embalming, two of the more informative works are Laura Chioffi, Mummificazione e imbalsamazione a Roma ed in altri luoghi del mondo romano (Roma: Quasar, 1998), and J.M.C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (London: Thames and Hudson, 1971). Christian attitudes are discussed by Edmund Martène, De Antiquis Ecclesiae Ritibus Libri Tres (Antwerp: J.B. Novelli, 1763–64), vol. 2, 366–7. Some instances of early Christian embalming are to be found in Flavius Cresconius Corippus, In laudem Iustinii Augusti minoris, edited and translated by Averil Cameron (London: The Athlone Press, 1976), lib. 3, 24–5; Jacob Burckhardt, The Age of Constantine the Great, translated by Moses Hadas (New York: Dorset Press, 1989), 267; Li Dialoge Gregoire lo Pape (Les Dialogues du pape Grégoire traduits en français du XIIe siècle accompagnés du texte latin), edited by Wendelin Foerster (Paris: H. Champion, 1876), 244–5.
The theological setting and the attraction of cinnamon in particular are discussed by Jean Hubaux and Maxime Leroy, Le mythe du Phénix dans les littératures grecque et latine (Liège: Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres, 1939), 85; R. van den Broek, The Myth of the Phoenix (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972), 167. On the chrism see Theodoure of Tarsus, Paenitentiale, II.5.1, in Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents Relating to Great Britain and Ireland (200–1295), edited by AW. Haddan and W. Stubbs, vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1871). For the mummy of Maria see César E. Dubler, La ‘Materia Médica’ de Dioscorides: Transmisión medieval e renacentista (Barcelona: Tipografía Emporium, 1953) vol. 4, 105–6.
The transmission of Roman customs is mentioned by Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, Le roi est mort. Étude sur les funérailles, les sépultres et les tombeaux des rois de France jusqu’à la fin du XIIc siècle (Geneva: Droz, 1975), 27; see also A. Guérillot-Vinet and L. Guyot, Les épices (Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1963), 65. Baldwin’s evisceration is recounted by Albert of Aix, Migne, vol. 166, col. 711. Techniques in the later Middle Ages are discussed in Patrice Georges, ‘Mourir c’est pourrir un peu … Intentions et techniques contre la corruption des cadavres à la fin du Moyen Age’, Micrologus, 7 (1999), 359–82; C. Beaune, ‘Mourir noblement à la fin du Moyen Age’, in La mort au moyen âge. Actes du Colloque de la société des historiens médiévistes de l’enseignement supérieur public (Strasbourg: Librairie Ista, 1977), 125–6; Louis Pénicher, Traité des embaumements selon les anciens et les modernes; avec une description de quelques compositions balsamiques & odourantes (Paris: Barthelemy Girin, 1699). The spiced homecoming of King Henry V is recounted in The Brut or Chronicles of England, reprinted in C.L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913), 430.
ABBOT EBERHARD’S COMPLAINT
For an introduction to the theory of medieval medicine, with due emphasis on its non-empirical aspects, see Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York: Macmillan, 1923–58). Laura Balletto, Medici e farmaci, scongiuru ed incantesimi, dieta e gastronomia nel medievo genovese (Genova: Università di Genova, Instituto di medievistica, 1986), is a fascinating case-study with much broader applicability. Similarly, the prominence of the medieval spicer is discussed by L. Irissou, ‘Les Épiciers-Apothicaires et les poivriers de Montpellier dans le cadre communal au Moyen ge’, Bulletin des Sciences Pharmacologiques, 38, nos 8–9 (1931), 511–29; Joseph Shatzmiller, ‘Herbes et drogues dans la médicine provençale du Moyen Age’, in Herbes, drogues et épices en Méditerranée. Histoire, anthropologie, économie du Moyen ge à nos jours, edited by G.-J. Aillaud et al. (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1990), 157–67. The broader significance of the European demand for spice is discussed by John M. Riddle, ‘The Introduction and Use of Eastern Drugs in the Early Middle Ages’, Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, 49, no. 1 (1965), 185–98. On St Gall’s medicine cabinet see Henry Sigerist, Studien und Texte zur frühmittelalterlichen Rezeptliteratur (Leipzig: Barth, 1923), 78–99.
There is no shortage of modern editions of medieval medical works. Several of the more influential and representative works I have consulted are Ernest A.W. Budge, The Syriac Book of Medicines: Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics in the Early Middle Ages (Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1976); Henry P. Cholmeley, John of Gaddesden and the Rosa Medicinae (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912); Avelino Domínguez García and Luis García Ballester, Johannis Aegidii Zamorensis Historia Naturalis (Salamanca: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo, 1994); Michael R. Best and Frank H. Bright-man, The Book of Secrets of Albertus Magnus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973); Roger Bacon, Opera hactenus inedita, edited by R. Steele et al. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909–40); Winifred Wulff, Rosa anglica, seu rosa medicinae Johannis Anglici (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1929); John Trevisa’s Translation of Bartholemeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum, edited by M.L. Seymour et al. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975–88). Galen’s works were edited by Carolus Gottlob Kühn, Galen. Opera Omnia (Leipzig: Teubner, 1821–28). For Avicenna’s Canon see D. Cameron Gruner, A Treatise on the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna (London: Luzac, 1930) and André Soubiran, Avicenne, prince des médecins (Paris: Librarie Lipschutz, 1935).
There is an ample literature on the Salernitan School. B. Lawn, The Prose Salernitan Questions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), is a standard work. On influences from the Arab world see F. Gabrielli, ‘La medicina araba e la scuola di Salerno’, Salerno, 1, no. 3 (1967), 12–24; M. Levey, ‘Ibn Masawiah and his Treatise on Simple Aromatic Substances’, Journal of the History of Medicine, 16 (1961), 394–403; L. García Ballester, C. Vázquez de Benito, ‘Los médicos judío-castellanos del siglo XIV y el galenismo arabe: El kitab al-tibb al-qastali al-maluki (Libro de medicina castellana regia),
ca. 1312’, Asclepio, 42 (1990), 119–47.
For literary references expressing scepticism over the spicer’s integrity, see Ch.-V. Langlois, La Vie en France au Moyen Age, de la fin du XIIe siècle au milieu du XIIe siècle (Paris: Hachette, 1926), vol. 2, IL 26, 754, 29, 118; also Thomas Wright’s Political Songs of England, from the Reign of John to that of Edward ¡I, edited by Peter Coss (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 333; Oeuvres complètes de Rute beuf trouvère du XIIIe siècle, edited by Achille Jubinal (Paris: P. Daffis, 1874–75), vol. 2, 59. Kathryn Reyerson, ‘Commercial Fraud in the Middle Ages: The Case of the Dissembling Pepperer’, Journal of Medieval History, vol. 8, no. 1 (1982), 63–73, is a revealing study. On veterinary medicine, see Juan Manuel, Libro dela caza (Halle: H. Niemeyer, 1880), 61–2.
POX, PESTILENCE AND POMANDERS
There is an excellent introduction to the study of smell and medicine by R. Palmer, ‘In Bad Odour: Smell and its Significance in Medicine from Antiquity to the Seventeenth Century’, in Medicine and the Five Senses, edited by R. Porter and W.F. Bynum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 61–8. Though the focus is more recent, Alain Corbin’s The Foul and the Fragrant (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986) was a pioneering work in this regard. There have been several studies attempting to place odours in a cultural setting. They include: Constance Classen, David Howes, Anthony Synnott, Aroma: The Cultural History of Smell (London: Routledge, 1994); Ruth Winter, The Smell Book: Scents, Sex, and Society (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1976); Constance Classen, Worlds of Sense: Exploring the Senses in History and Across Cultures (London: Routledge, 1993).
