The economic, religious and social importance of food in the Middle Ages is a subject that is attracting increasing attention from historians. It’s a reflection, perhaps, of our own society’s obsession with culinary experiences and the senses. In this meticulously researched study, Christopher Woolgar serves up a feast of information about food in medieval England. Drawing on a wealth of material, including household accounts, cookery books (more than four thousand medieval recipes survive to this day), literary works, miracle stories, monastic regulations, town ordinances, coroners’ rolls, and contemporary illustrations, architecture and objects, he explores both perceptions of food in the period from 1200 to 1500 and the manner in which foodstuffs were obtained, prepared and eaten. At the heart of Woolgar’s study is a highly compelling argument that food occupied a more significant, sophisticated and meaningful place in medieval culture than has often been recognised.
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Perception is a weird thing. Lawrence Durrell saw Hydra as a ‘great horned toad’ but Henry Miller thought it resembled a ‘huge loaf of petrified bread’. Niko Ghika painted it as a series of neat white and orange squares.
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