a medieval home companion

I read yesterday a small book entitled: A Medieval Home Companion (translated/edited by Tania Bayard). It was written in the late 14th century by an elderly husband to his young bride as a guide to how to keep house, especially if he should die and she should have to remarry and no longer had his guidance.

I was surprised at several points of this book:

First: I expected to be bombarded by a stereotypical dark age like mentality of chauvinism. You know, let the man run all over you, wash the dishes, clean the halls and the stairs, sweep the chimney. However, in his introduction to his wife he mentions how pleased he is with her and how he demands nothing more than how she already is (to me this translates to: I love you just the way you are) he does add a “but”. “…not so much for my sake but either to aid another husband if you have one after me, or better to tech your daughters, friends, or others if you so desire or have the need”. He seems concerned more with helping her then trying to keep her under his thumb. Plus, most of his directives are merely recipes and how to guides (like how to make red rose water and hot to make compote).

Second: My next surprise was how similar so many of their remedies are to our own modern ones. Very few seemed like superstition and most were actually good pointers. For instance, in his section on ridding the house of flies he says to have a “hanging cord soaked in honey” so the flies will stick to it and be easily thrown away. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Apparently we are not as evolved as we thought or maybe the dark ages were not so very dark after all.

Third: Apparently there was/is something called a “Paris Measure”. I have not been able to discover what this is, only that the Italians seemed confused by it as well. “When you want to make hippocras, take an ample half ounce of this powder and mix it with a half pound of sugar and a quatre of wine, Paris measure”. The only thing I can think of is that in the 14th century “quatre” was the beginning of our “quart”… I may need to do a study of the origins of weights and measures.