"The present volume aims to offer a panorama of what people ate and how did they do it in the Iberian Peninsula from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It has long been recognized that Mediterranean cultures attach great importance to communal meals and food cooked with great refinement, but, yet medieval feasting in England, France and Italy has been thoroughly studied, it is not the case for Spain and Portugal. In this book the reader will learn about how medieval men of the Iberian Peninsula questioned themselves about different aspects deemed important in social feasting. Thus, the acquisition of table manners and rhetorical skills, the interaction between medicine and eating and the presence of food in literature and religion did shape Peninsular societies, but their attitude towards food also connected them to a Western European background. This book intends to fill a gap for scholars that wish to have an interdisciplinary approach to food and feasting from the perspectives of literature, history, language, art, religion and medicine, but also for students interested in a social, cultural and literary overview of the life in the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages"--

"The present volume aims to offer a panorama of what people ate and how did they do it in the Iberian Peninsula from the 12th to the 15th centuries. It has long been recognized that Mediterranean cultures attach great importance to communal meals and food cooked with great refinement, but, yet medieval feasting in England, France and Italy has been thoroughly studied, it is not the case for Spain and Portugal. In this book the reader will learn about how medieval men of the Iberian Peninsula questioned themselves about different aspects deemed important in social feasting. Thus, the acquisition of table manners and rhetorical skills, the interaction between medicine and eating and the presence of food in literature and religion did shape Peninsular societies, but their attitude towards food also connected them to a Western European background. This book intends to fill a gap for scholars that wish to have an interdisciplinary approach to food and feasting from the perspectives of literature, history, language, art, religion and medicine, but also for students interested in a social, cultural and literary overview of the life in the Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages"--

This book offers a study of what and how people ate in the Iberian Peninsula between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries. It has long been recognized that Mediterranean cultures attach great importance to communal meals and food cooked with great refinement. However, whilst medieval feasting in England, France and Italy has been thoroughly studied, Spain and Portugal have both been somewhat neglected in this area of study. This volume analyses how medieval men of the Iberian Peninsula questioned themselves about different aspects deemed important in social feasting. It investigates the acquisition of table manners and rhetorical skills, the interaction between medicine and eating, and the presence of food in literature and religion. The book also shows how this shared society and culture, as well as their attitude towards food, connected them to a Western European tradition. The book will appeal to scholars and students alike interested in food and feasting from the perspectives of literature, history, language, art, religion and medicine, and to those interested in a social, cultural and literary overview of life in the Iberian Peninsula during the late Middle Ages.

Explore the Middle Ages, a complex and often misunderstood period in European history, through this vivid examination. Details of everyday living recreate the time period for modern readers, conveying the foreignness of the medieval world while bringing it into focus. The volume provides a two-pronged approach to history beginning with a broad sketch of the general dynamics that shaped the medieval experience while at the same time creating a detailed and clear portrait of what life would have been like for real individuals living in specific settings at the time. The reader is introduced to medieval society in the first three chapters, which include information on the life cycle, material culture, and the economy. These chapters provide an understanding of what people ate, what their social lives were like, what they wore, what kinds of jobs they had, and much more. Following are portraits of life in four specific medieval settings, offering in each case a particular example of the type: the village (Cuxham in Oxfordshire), the castle (Dover), the monastery (Cluny) and the town (Paris). Extensive use of documentary sources from each place sketch the broad contours of the social setting and provide details of the everyday experiences of real individuals. The volume concludes with an exploration of how ordinary people perceived the world in which they lived. Original games, recipes, and music are also provided to round out this rich introduction to life in medieval Europe.

Provides an overview of food, hunting, and cooking in the Middle Ages.

So close geographically, how could France and England be so enormously far apart gastronomically? Not just in different recipes and ways of cooking, but in their underlying attitudes toward the enjoyment of eating and its place in social life. In a new afterword that draws the United States and other European countries into the food fight, Stephen Mennell also addresses the rise of Asian influence and "multicultural" cuisine. Debunking myths along the way, All Manners of Food is a sweeping look at how social and political development has helped to shape different culinary cultures. Food and almost everything to do with food, fasting and gluttony, cookbooks, women's magazines, chefs and cooks, types of foods, the influential difference between "court" and "country" food are comprehensively explored and tastefully presented in a dish that will linger in the memory long after the plates have been cleared.

Describes the extraordinary range of food which found its way on to the tables of medieval English society, its production and distribution.