p-thts-animls-msg - 1/29/08 Period thoughts about animals. Period treatment of animals. NOTE: See also the files: pets-msg, livestock-msg, ferrets-msg, horses-msg, cats-msg, dogs-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 08:21:04 CST From: "Katy Corey" <k_corey at WJHS.NWSC.K12.AR.US> To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Re: Chickens & eggs & thoughts on period practices > Many medieval pastimes were brutal to animals - they thought a lot of really > nasty things were funny. This is an area in which we are very different - > like our hygiene. This is another area in which authenticity does not > appeal to me. I remember reading that Leonardo da Vinci was considered strange as a young man because he hated the common entertainment of throwing cats onto sharpened stakes to watch them struggle. The same source - probably a National Geographic book on the Italian Renaissance - said that he would buy caged birds in the marketplace just to set them free. Katherine Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 10:14:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Rooscc at aol.com To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Chicken & eggs While there were many cruel practices in the Middle Ages (cock fighting and dog fighting still exist today), there was also an understanding of humane treatment of farm animals. (Not as pets, but as a kind regard for the animals' well being.) Walter of Henley (13th century handbook for running manors) gives several examples: providing scratching posts, allowing ample "play" time outside the stall in winter, etc. He also advises the lord to watch how the animals behave around their keepers--if they seem fearful or avoid the person then they are likely being mistreated. This contrasts favorably I think with the attitudes in modern large commercial production. Alysoun Middle Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 19:58:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Rooscc at aol.com To: sca-arts at raven.cc.ukans.edu Subject: Walter of Henley >He also advises the lord to watch >how the animals behave around their keepers--if they >seem fearful or avoid the person then they are likely >being mistreated. This was in regard to sheep and oxen. Overall the advice given in 13th-century manuals would be considered micro-managing today. The lord should expect a calf for every cow and at least a lamb for every ewe (twinning was common). If this is not the case, the lord should ask why: was a bull or ram not available and why not? Every animal should be accounted for--if it died, he should have the skin or fleece and a full account of what happened. The business consideration is uppermost and yet there is a sympathetic undertone in regard to the animals. I don't own a copy of this work so I can't quote it for you. Some of the same sentiments reoccur in Tusser in the mid-sixteenth. They respect their beasts but don't make pets of them. Alysoun Middle From: "Trevor Barker" <barkert at delete.logica.com> Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: Stefan's Florilegium Date: 30 Mar 1998 12:03:36 GMT Organization: Logica UK Limited Stefan li Rous <stefan at texas.net> wrote > [snip] > Hmm. Does anyone have in referances to what medieval people thought > of lemmings? Were lemmings used for skins? Do they figure in any > medieval literature? I don't know about lemmings. Geraldus Cambrensis (c1200) mentions Welsh beavers. Apparently, beavers were hunted for their testicles. So, if a beaver was persued and couldn't escape, it would bite off its bollocks (good English word, that) thus rendering itself worthless to the hunters. Beavers that had already emasculated themselves during a previous hunt would seek out high ground, then present their rear quarters to show they weren't worth chasing. (Although Gerald doesn't mention it, I suppose female beavers could do the same thing, if the hunters couldn't tell a male from a female.) It's no wonder that beavers went extinct in Wales during the Middle Ages ;-) Trevor. Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 06:07:32 -0600 From: Robert Downie <rdownie at mb.sympatico.ca> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re: Cruel food To: Susan Browning <daubrecicourt at earthlink.net>, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> Susan Browning wrote: > Can't quote you the source, but I have seen a recipe on how to cook a > chicken/goose? alive, and start to eat it while it is still living. > > Eleanor Thesewere convieniently located on the Gode Cookery website: Faerisa A Goose roasted alive - from Magia Naturalis: A Goose roasted alive. A little before our times, a Goose was wont to be brought to the table of the King of Arragon, that was roasted alive, as I have heard by old men of credit. And when I went to try it, my company were so hasty, that we ate him up before he was quite roasted. He was alive, and the upper part of him, on the outside, was excellent well roasted. The rule to do it is thus. Take a Duck, or a Goose, or some such lusty creature, but the Goose is best for this purpose. Pull all the Feathers from his body, leaving his head and his neck. Then make a fire round about him, not too narrow, lest the smoke choke him, or the fire should roast him too soon. Not too wide, lest he escape unroasted. Inside set everywhere little pots full of water, and put Salt and Meum to them. Let the Goose be smeared all over with Suet, and well Larded, that he may be the better meat, and roast the better. Put the fire about, but make not too much haste. When he begins to roast, he will walk about, and cannot get forth, for the fire stops him. When he is weary, he quenches his thirst by drinking the water, by cooling his heart, and the rest of his internal parts. The force of the Medicament loosens and cleans his belly, so that he grows empty. And when he is very hot, it roasts his inner parts. Continually moisten his head and heart with a Sponge. But when you see him run mad up and down, and to stumble (his heart then wants moisture), wherefore you take him away, and set him on the table to your guests, who will cry as you pull off his parts. And you shall eat him up before he is dead. Porta, Giambattista della. Magia Naturalis. <http://members.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportac14.html> (June 9, 2001) To make a Chicken be Served Roasted - from The Vivendier: To make a Chicken be Served Roasted. Get a chicken or any other bird you want, and pluck it alive cleanly in hot water. Then get the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs; they should be beaten with powdered saffron and wheat flour, and distempered with fat broth or with the grease that drips under a roast into the dripping pan. By means of a feather glaze and paint your pullet carefully with this mixture so that its colour looks like roast meat. With this done, and when it is about to be served to the table, put the chicken's head under its wing, and turn it in your hands, rotating it until it is fast asleep. Then set it down on your platter with the other roast meat. When it is about to be carved it will wake up and make off down the table upsetting jugs, goblets and whatnot. Scully, Terence. The Vivendier. Devon: Prospect Books, 1997. <the end> Edited by Mark S. Harris p-thts-animals-msg Page 4 of 4