table-manners-msg - 1/16/03 Period table manners. NOTE: See also the files: meat-carving-bib, forks-msg, high-table-msg, Handwashing-art, p-tableware-msg, tablecloths-msg, aquamaniles-msg, p- manners-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 seperate 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 orignator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous mark.s.harris@motorola.com stefan@florilegium.org ************************************************************************ Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 17:27:06 -0700 (PDT) From: Laura C Minnick Subject: Re: SC - help needed on knightly virtues/Ideals of Chivalry Find this book in your local University library, or get the local library to get it via ILL.- F.J.Furnivall, ed. _Early English Meals and Manners_. London, Early English Text Society, 1868. In the Furnival you will find these very useful texts: The Boke of Curtasye_ (Sloane MS, 1986, British Museum, 1430-1440) Wynkyn de Worde's _The Boke of Kervynge_, 1413 John Russell's _The Book of Nurture_ (Harleian MS. 4011, BrM, mid 15th c.) _Ffor to Serve a Lord_ early 16th century These are all manners and training books- the sort used in a large noble house to teach the young men. Very, Very useful. There is also a good deal of material on serving etc., in : Bridget Ann Henisch's _Fast and Feast_ (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976) If you have more questions, please ask- I did a term project on servers and serving for a class I took on Medieval Ceremony and Ritual, and somewhere I still have the materials. (Probably under the rock, like everything else...) 'Lainie - - Laura C. Minnick Date: Sun, 26 Mar 2000 16:02:21 EST From: RuddR@aol.com Subject: SC - Re: table eating utensils Stefan quotes and writes: > > << The fundraiser also featured no silverware, as they thought > > medieval man ate without utensils. >> > > > > Actually, they did eat without utensils other than a knife until relatively > > late in period. This is the reason why you only use your right hand to serve > > yourself food with (your left being used for personal cleansing). > > Hmm. Yes, I believe this left-handed thing was a tradition in the Middle > East. > Do you have any evidence that this was ever done with any consistancy in > the non-Moslem parts of Europe? I have recently been looking at medieval illuminations of diners at table, trying to answer this very question. For the most part, diners are eating with their right hands, but every now and then, with their left hands (see: http://www.50megs.com/matterer/medpix/gallery1/mpix18.htm). In some pictures the diners are reaching into the dishes with one hand while holding morsels of food in the other (http://www.50megs.com/matterer/medpix/gallery4/mpix115.htm). So it seems as though the Islamic stricture against eating with the left hand did not apply in medieval Christendom. Perhaps the custom of public hand washing before dinner had something to do with this. Rudd Rayfield Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2000 02:10:17 -0400 From: Christine A Seelye-King Subject: SC - Table manners Hello all, I am almost through wading through my backlog of emails, and found this one I though you might like. Christianna - --------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mark Mettler To: meridian-ty@egroups.com On Manners: When Sir Ector delivered the Elegy for Lancelot in Le Morte Darthur he said, "Thou was the meekest man and the gentelist that ever ate in a hall among the ladies." Some simple rules from historical documents: Do not pet the dog during dinner. If thou do no drink, even though, offer it unto thy guests and humor them by pretending to partake. In all humility and friendship partake from a common plate and cup. Do not appear gluttony, nor ravenous, nor as a hog a trough, but be reserved in thy partaking that you seem grateful for the gifts you partake. Your bones, and shells and other things not fit for thy stomach, throw upon the floor and do not appears to be wasteful, but having cleanly removed the worthy before displaying your gratefulness on the floor. It is best to serve they guest at feast a sauce of bitter taste, a vinegar sauce and pepper too shall satisfy the tongue oft your food is cold. - -- Ld. Gryffri de Newmarch http://www2.gasou.edu/SCA From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 18:42:58 -0400 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? On 7 May 2002, at 13:42, Harris Mark.S-rsve60 wrote: > I thought napkins were a post-period development. Let's assume > a 14th Century feast here. As it happens, I just taught a class at a local schola on medieval table manners. Although most of the period courtesy manuals are from the 15th and 16th centuries, there are some that are older. The 12th century "Urbanus Magnus" by Daniel of Beccles mentions napkins used to wipe ones hands after washing. He also instructs diners to wipe their knives on a piece of bread, and not to lick it or scape it clean on edge of his plate. Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom rcmann4@earthlink.net Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 15:58:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Huette von Ahrens Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org --- jenne@fiedlerfamily.net wrote: > It doesn't look like napkins/towels to go accross > the diners laps are > postperiod, they are definitely present in the 16th > c. manners texts. Yes. And in drawings too. > Besides, you wipe you fingers and your utensils on > your BREAD, of course! If you are 16th century, trenchers were less used, hence the napkins/towels. If you are 14th century, then you wiped your fingers on your dog. Or so I have heard. :-) Huette Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 16:17:48 -0700 To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org From: "Laura C. Minnick" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? >If you are 14th century, then you wiped your fingers >on your dog. Or so I have heard. :-) > >Huette Uh, nooo... the texts are also explicit about NOT touching the dog or cat (yes, they had indoor cats!). Besides, who wants a greasy animal rubbing on you after dinner? 'Lainie Date: Tue, 07 May 2002 20:23:10 -0400 From: phoenissa@netscape.net To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? "Harris Mark.S-rsve60" wrote: >I thought napkins were a post-period development. Let's assume >a 14th Century feast here. I don't know much about the 14thc., but I'm fairly certain that napkins were around in the 16th. I'd be surprised if some form of napkin *didn't* exist at that point - I know it's bad to assume that if something existed in antiquity, and then existed again during the Renaissance, that it was around in between, but...the Romans most certainly did use napkins. (There's this cute little poem by Catullus, 1st c. BC, about an uncouth dinner guest who tries to steal these fancy linen napkins that were souvenirs from Spain.) So, napkins definitely were not first invented after 1600. :-) Vittoria From: "Terry Decker" To: Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Naphins Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 20:54:19 -0500 >The people at Camelot Village say that the Romans used napkins. >Angustias "You rifle through every dish that's served: sow's paps, pigs ears, enough woodcock for two, half a mullet and an entire pike, filet of moray eel, a pullet thigh, a dove dripping with sauce. When it is all wrapped well between the corners of an oil-soaked napkin, you pass it to your servant who carries it home; while we remain seated there and can do nothing. Give us back our meal, if you have even the slightest shame. I did not invite you for tomorrow, Caecilianus." Martial 2,37 Guess they're right. Bear Date: Tue, 7 May 2002 20:51:29 -0600 (MDT) From: Ann Sasahara To: "SCA-Cooks maillist (E-mail)" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? On Tue, 7 May 2002 jenne@fiedlerfamily.net wrote: > > Stefan! Bad! No biscuit! Don't wipe your knife on the tablecloth- on your > > napkin maybe, but nor the tablecloth. Nor do you wipe your face on the > > tablecloth. > > -------- > > I thought napkins were a post-period development. Let's assume > > a 14th Century feast here. > > It doesn't look like napkins/towels to go across the diners laps are > postperiod, they are definitely present in the 16th c. manners texts. I'm looking at the dust jacket and frontpiece of _Dining with William Shakespeare_. It's a wedding scene detail from "The Life of Sir Henry Unton (1557 - 1596)". The men in the painting have their napkins on their left shoulder or on their left forearm. The ladies at each end of the table have their napkins in their lap. I assume from the painting that white cloth napkins did exist in late 16th c. England, but that only ladies placed them across the lap. Men had a choice of left shoulder or left forearm. Does anyone know of any other pictoral evidence? Manuals of behavior are interesting because they tell you what people SHOULD do. Paintings are more interesting because they show you what people ACTUALLY do. Come Watson, the game is afoot. wild thought: If an Elizabethan man placed his napkin across his lap, as was the custom shown by the ladies, did his peers consider him effeminate? Ariann, who eats her salad with her dinner fork and lets the salad fork go back to the kitchen unused... From: jenne@fiedlerfamily.net Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 00:13:23 -0400 (EDT) To: "SCA-Cooks maillist (E-mail)" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] what did they do with dirty tableware? > I'm looking at the dust jacket and frontpiece of _Dining with William > Shakespeare_. It's a wedding scene detail from "The Life of Sir Henry > Unton (1557 - 1596)". The men in the painting have their napkins on their > left shoulder or on their left forearm. The ladies at each end of the > table have their napkins in their lap. Hm. In the serving manners books, we are directed (we being the servers) to carry a towel (ie. napkin like object) across the arms/shoulder) and to put a separate towel/napkin across the laps of the dinner guests extending from the edge of the table. I'll try to remember to look up WHICH serving book says that tomorrow. -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa From: "Patricia Collum" To: Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2002 17:56:16 -0700 Subject: [Sca-cooks] Medieval eating I found this today while looking for info on medieval table manners and thought I would share http://www.azeri.org/Azeri/az_latin/manuscripts/etiquette/english/etiquette_ english.html Cecily From: "Decker, Terry D." To: "'sca-cooks@ansteorra.org'" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] hats, andperiod spectacles Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 14:06:08 -0600 > When wearing a hat and wimple, does one extend their pinky when consuming > food or drink? When did that practice begin? Anyone know? > > Olwen the helpful It is a Medieval practice according to some sources. The little finger was used to dip and spread spices at the table. It was kept extended while eating and drinking to keep it from grease and food which would contaminate the spices. I haven't chased down the contemporary etiquette manuals to see what they say, so I take it with a grain of salt--on my extended pinky. Bear Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2002 12:57:41 -0800 From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" To: sca-cooks@ansteorra.org Subject: Spreading spices (was Re: [Sca-cooks] hats, andperiod spectacles) On Tue, 19 Nov 2002 14:06:08 -0600 "Decker, Terry D." wrote: > It is a Medieval practice according to some > sources. The little finger was > used to dip and spread spices at the table. It > was kept extended while > eating and drinking to keep it from grease and > food which would contaminate > the spices. > > I haven't chased down the contemporary > etiquette manuals to see what they > say, so I take it with a grain of salt--on my > extended pinky. According to some period books of manners, the proper way to take salt is on the tip of your knife -- after you have wiped it clean on a piece of bread. I don't recall any "spice" other than salt being mentioned as being served on the dining table. Brighid ni Chiarain Edited by Mark S. Harris table-manners-msg 5