Libellus de arte coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book. Edited and Translated by
Rudolf Grewe and Constance B. Hieatt. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and
Studies, 222. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies,
2001. Pp. ix + (3) + 158 + 4 pl. $22.
The early Northern cookery book of the title refers to one of the oldest, perhaps
even the very oldest, vernacular collections of European culinary recipes. It is
transmitted in four manuscripts deriving from a text produced not later than the
end of the thirteenth century (p. 1). The collection of some thirty-five recipes
may in fact go back to a prototext from the twelfth century, but which is presumably
lost. And this collection most likely derives from a French original, to judge
by certain of its terms and recipe titles, indicating that our oldest knowledge of
French cooking is transmitted in the Germanic area (p. 8).
Marianne E. Kalinke
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
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