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hrj(By the way, thanks everyone for being too tactful to mention that I was misspelling Messisbugo throughout. I think I've caught them all and fixed them.)
In my analysis of the conceptual structure of a Messisbugo menu, I jumped ahead to my application of the analysis to the stripped-down version I served at Coronet. Now you get the really geeky analysis.
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vittoriosa’s translations, provided to the PPF3 team as background information. The first set analyzed here are specifically the “Carnival menus”: a colletion of elaborate dinners served during Carnival in various years with a variety of hosts and guests. Although these come from a single collected source, the diversity in dates and hosts suggest that any similarities between them may represent basic cultural practices for the general time and place. The basic information is as follows:
15?0 (date has an error in the original ms.): 40 guests, given by Count Giulio Sacrato for the Duke of Chartres, the Archbishop of Milan, and Lord Don Francesco their brother
1524: 74 guests, given by Messer Alberto and Messer Hercole Turchi for Lord Don Ercole d’Este and for the Archbishop of Milan his brother
1536: 38 guests, given by Messer Girolamo Giliolo for the Duke of Ferrara
1537: 51 guests, given by Count Galeazzo Estense Tassone for the Duke of Ferrara and Cardinals Salviati and Ravenna
1540: 46 guests, given by Count Paolo di Costabili for the Duke of Ferrara
1548: 27 guests, given by Christophoro Messisbugo for “Our Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Lord, for the Most Illustrious Lord Prince” (not specified)
While my first observation of the parallelism of the menus was on a more detailed level, let’s start with the major structure. The menus start out with a description of how the table is laid with a few foods or decorations set out at this point. There follows a description of a course’s worth of dishes but generally not labeled as a specific “course”. And as this list is followed by a description of scented water being brought out for the hands, there’s an implication that these dishes may be on the table waiting for the guests as they are seated and have their hands washed. For convenience I call this the “pre-course”. Generally the next list of dishes is explicitly labeled as the “First course”. All the menus have three numbered courses, three have a fourth, and one has a fifth. But as we shall see, the difference isn’t in the specific dishes served, but how they’re organized relative to the courses. The menus with fewer courses simply compress the standard dishes rather than omitting any. After these numbered courses, the tables are cleared, one of the tablecloths is removed (presumably to remove food debris) and the hands are again washed. This is followed by an unnumbered course of confections and fruit preserves. All but one of the menus then describes a collation served later in the evening, consisting generally of confections, fresh fruits, and sugar water.
The analysis will treat each of these units separately, except that the numbered courses 3-5 will be covered as a unit.
In my analysis of the conceptual structure of a Messisbugo menu, I jumped ahead to my application of the analysis to the stripped-down version I served at Coronet. Now you get the really geeky analysis.
I’m working from
vittoriosa’s translations, provided to the PPF3 team as background information. The first set analyzed here are specifically the “Carnival menus”: a colletion of elaborate dinners served during Carnival in various years with a variety of hosts and guests. Although these come from a single collected source, the diversity in dates and hosts suggest that any similarities between them may represent basic cultural practices for the general time and place. The basic information is as follows:15?0 (date has an error in the original ms.): 40 guests, given by Count Giulio Sacrato for the Duke of Chartres, the Archbishop of Milan, and Lord Don Francesco their brother
1524: 74 guests, given by Messer Alberto and Messer Hercole Turchi for Lord Don Ercole d’Este and for the Archbishop of Milan his brother
1536: 38 guests, given by Messer Girolamo Giliolo for the Duke of Ferrara
1537: 51 guests, given by Count Galeazzo Estense Tassone for the Duke of Ferrara and Cardinals Salviati and Ravenna
1540: 46 guests, given by Count Paolo di Costabili for the Duke of Ferrara
1548: 27 guests, given by Christophoro Messisbugo for “Our Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Lord, for the Most Illustrious Lord Prince” (not specified)
While my first observation of the parallelism of the menus was on a more detailed level, let’s start with the major structure. The menus start out with a description of how the table is laid with a few foods or decorations set out at this point. There follows a description of a course’s worth of dishes but generally not labeled as a specific “course”. And as this list is followed by a description of scented water being brought out for the hands, there’s an implication that these dishes may be on the table waiting for the guests as they are seated and have their hands washed. For convenience I call this the “pre-course”. Generally the next list of dishes is explicitly labeled as the “First course”. All the menus have three numbered courses, three have a fourth, and one has a fifth. But as we shall see, the difference isn’t in the specific dishes served, but how they’re organized relative to the courses. The menus with fewer courses simply compress the standard dishes rather than omitting any. After these numbered courses, the tables are cleared, one of the tablecloths is removed (presumably to remove food debris) and the hands are again washed. This is followed by an unnumbered course of confections and fruit preserves. All but one of the menus then describes a collation served later in the evening, consisting generally of confections, fresh fruits, and sugar water.
The analysis will treat each of these units separately, except that the numbered courses 3-5 will be covered as a unit.
