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Dalby, Andrew. 2012. The Treatise of Walter of Bibbesworth. Prospect Books, Totnes. ISBN 978-1-903018-86-6

(I keep wanting to read the author's name as "Bibblesworth". Then I giggle.)

The names "Prospect Books" and "Andrew Dalby" normally bring to mind "historic culinary literature", so why do we find them here associated with a mid-13th century book on instruction on the French language in the form of rhyming couplets? The backstory of the work is interesting enough on its own. Walter wrote the treatise for his neighbor, Dionisie de Anesty, for the instruction of her two stepchildren. They children's maternal grandfather was William Marshall so their proper instruction was no small matter, one might think. At any rate, Walter penned what is essentially a thematic vocabulary, set out in rhymed couplets, ornamented with a fair amount of wordplay in the form of puns, contrasts of homophones, and the occasional riddle. The subject matter is grouped in topics. As he sets out in his own preface: "the whole vocabulary of ... husbandry and estate management, as in ploughing ... weeding, hoeing, reaping, mowing, carting, stacking, threshing, winnowing and grinding; kneading, malting, brewing, holding a High Feast. THen all the French of beasts and birds ... of woods, croplands and pastures, orchards, gardens, courtyards ... flowers and fruits. Thus you wil find the proper way to speak and answer that every gentleman needs to know."

But where, in this, is the culinary connection? There are, of course, many vocabulary items related to crops and domestic animals, but the section that makes this text of interest to culinary historians takes the reader through the laying out and serving of a meal, though interspersed with unrelated matter for the sake of the obligatory wordplay. Sample sections include:

Clean the house and spread with rushes; set up the table and cover it.
Cover the ends and sides of the table before lords;
At least let this be agreed, cover the table with a white tablecloth.
Cover the second, too, with a white tablecloth if you have one.
...
Wash the cups, clean the bowls, cut the agnails from your nails with scissors;
Off you go, scullion! With your flesh-hook take the haggis out of the pot.
...
Get people together for a meal; you can even do them honour in this way.
Slice this loaf that has been pared; the crusts should be given for alms.
...
A young man of fashion came here from a dinner
And told us about the feast, how the service was arranged.
Without bread and wine or beer no feast will be comfortable;
But they had all three, they told us.
At the beginning was served boar's head, well armed.
The snout with the neck garlanded, then venison with frumenty.
... Then there were various meats roasted, six dishes each and more on the side,
Cranes, peacocks and swans, marsh-geese, sucking-pigs and hens;
As third course they had rabbits in gravy and Viaunde de Cypre steeped,
Mace cubebs and gilded cloves, white and red wine in plenty;
Pheasants, woodcocks, partridges, fieldfares, larks, plovers well roasted.
Brawn, crisps and fritters with powdered rose-sugar as corrective;
And when the table was removed, blanch powder as whole sweetmeats.

* * *
There are also descriptions of brewing and bread-making that, while not sufficient in detail to be used as recipes, are certainly specific enough to be a basis for reconstructing something plausible. Given that the treatise was written well over a century before the Forme of Cury, there is value in interpolating between the sketchy mentions of dishes in Bibbesworth and related items, such as the Vyaunde Cypre in the more detailed later book.