Medieval Tastes

Massimo Montanari, one of the most renowned historians of cuisine, has produced a well-written volume covering a wide range of topics, from medieval recipe books to staple foodstuff. There was not one page that did not hold my complete attention. -- Massimo Ciavolella, University of California, Los Angeles Massimo Montanari is a master communicator of fascinating ideas. He proposes the intriguing concept of the Middle Ages as something at once close but also very distant. This work will prove appealing to more than just food historians, and I highly recommend it. -- David Gentilcore, University of Leicester With incisiveness and thoroughness, Massimo Montanari's Medieval Tastes redraws the contours of the central role food played in Italian society from the early centuries of the Middle Ages to the Renaissance and beyond. More than just an enthralling journey through medieval culinary tastes, regimens, and norms, this excellent volume probes the more hidden folds of the social and cultural discourses that undergirded culinary systems. -- Pina Palma, author of Savoring Power, Consuming the Times: The Metaphors of Food in Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature Medieval Tastes is an elaborately researched, sophisticated treatment of the topic... Highly recommended. Choice A monograph that will be of enormous use to scholars working in food studies and related cultural studies fields, while also promising delight for the general interst reader as well. Sixteenth Century Journal

Massimo Montanari is professor of medieval history and the history of food at the Institute of Paleography and Medieval Studies, University of Bologna. He has authored and coauthored more than a dozen books on the history of cuisine and the cultural values of food, including Let the Meatballs Rest: And Other Stories About Food and Culture; Cheese, Pears, and History in a Proverb; Food Is Culture; Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History; Food: A Culinary History; and Famine and Plenty: The History of Food in Europe. Beth Archer Brombert is the author of two widely acclaimed biographies: Cristina: Portraits of a Princess and Edouard Manet: Rebel in a Frock Coat, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her most recent work is a memoir of her decades of living, traveling, and cooking in Italy, Journey to the World of the Black Rooster. Her many translations from French and Italian include Italo Svevo's Senilita (Emilio's Carnival) and Erri De Luca's Tu, Mio (You, Mine).

Introduction: Invitation to the Voyage 1. Medieval Near, Medieval Far 2. Medieval Cookbooks 3. The Grammar of Food 4. The Times of Food 5. The Aroma of Civilization: Bread 6. Hunger for Meat 7. The Ambiguous Position of Fish 8. From Milk to Cheeses 9. Condiment/Fundament: The Battle of Oil, Lard, and Butter 10. The Bread Tree 11. The Flavor of Water 12. The Civilization of Wine 13. Rich Food, Poor Food 14. Monastic Cooking 15. The Pilgrim's Food 16. The Table as a Representation of the World 17. The Fork and the Hands 18. The Taste of Knowledge Notes Bibliography Index