Forks and the Byzantine Princess

The first post-Roman table fork to appear in Western Europe was recorded in Venice in the Eleventh-Century. Giovanni Orseolo, the son of Pietro II, Doge of Venice, married Maria Argyropoulaina, niece of the Emperors Basil and Constantine, the daughter of Argyrus (or Argyropylus), and sister of Romanus, who was afterwards Emperor,[1] a Byzantine princess.[2] She brought with her the comforts of home: rose water, silks and at least one fork.

The Byzantine princess was not popular in Venice, if we may assume that some stories told of her by Peter Damian are derived from Venetian rumour. He quotes her as an example of shameful Oriental luxury: "She scorned to wash with common water, so that her servants had to gather the dew of heaven for her bath. Nor would she take her food with her hand like other mortals, but her eunuchs cut it into small pieces which she then carried to her mouth with a golden instrument that had two prongs:[3] her rooms, too, were always scented with the costliest perfumes."[4]

We are led to believe that the way the princess used her golden forks had outraged the populace and the clergy, who called her forks "luxurious beyond belief."[5] "Instead of eating with her fingers like other people, the princess cuts up her food into small pieces and eats them by means of little golden forks with two prongs.... God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks - his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."[6] "Whether through disease, climate or nefarious means, the princess died within the year. The Bishop of Ostia, Peter Damian, wrote, ‘Of the Venetian Doge’s wife, whose body, after her excessive delicacy, entirely rotted away.’" [7]

Was this fact? Or slander and mis-information repeated so often that it has become "truth." There was some grumbling by the populace towards Giovanni and Maria, but it was not her habits of cleanliness or eating utensils that were the cause. The populace of Venice were afraid of the ambitions of Doge Pietro. "The association of his son with himself as Doge was an act by no means without precedent, as we have seen, but it had never been regarded with approval at Venice, and combined with the Byzantine marriage, would naturally lead to the suspicion that the Doge wished to make his power hereditary and to develop into, a king."[8] It may, also, have been backlash due to the schism between the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches: the Princess becoming a physical symbol of the more complicated divide between the two churchs. In any case, Giovanni and Maria died in a plague[9] that hit Venice in 1007. They died within sixteen days of each other, and were buried in a single "mausoleum" in San Zaccaria. [10]

Long after Maria’s death a cautionary tale was told about the Greek wife of a Venetian Doge which seems to refer to her. It was related by St. Peter Damian, a fervent reformer of the evils of his time, who died in 1072. The moral of it was that the good Christians of the west should beware of the decadent and sybaritic ways of the east, lest the Oronates flow into the Tiber. Peter records with vindictive satisfaction how the Greek princess who came to Venice died a hideous death as a result of her self-indulgence. Distrusting the water supply of Venice, she had her servants collect rain water for her ablutions. Too fastidious to eat with her fingers, she carries her food to her mouth with a two-pronged golden fork. Disliking the stink of the lagoons, she filled her rooms with incense and perfumes. For such depravity and vanity she was a victim of the wrath of God, who smote her with a vile disease. Her body putrefied, her limbs withered, her bedchamber was permeated by such a stench that only one of her maids could bear it; and after a lingering illness of excruciating agony she passed away to the great relief of her friends. It is a nasty tale, but it is eloquent of the difference in living standards between Byzantium and the west in the eleventh century. .. The princess Theophano who had married Otto II was believed to be burning in Hell because of all of the baths she had taken during her lifetime. If eating a fork or taking baths were though enough to being down the wrath of God, western society had still some way to go to match the cultured habits of Byzantium. [11]

Add to this, all of the documentation attributing the introduction of the fork to Venice to Theodora, wife of the Doge Domenico Selvo (reigned from 1070 - 1084)[12] , also a Byzantine princess.[13] I was confused why sources were confused as to the name of the princess; some using Theodora and some using Maria. Some did not list any names at all, instead introducing her as the "wife of the Doge", "married to the Doge’s son" or simply as "a Byzantine Princess". Upon more detailed investigation, it would appear that Domenico Selvo married Teodora in 1075. Peter Damian was born sometime between 995 and 1007[14] and died in 1072:[15] Peter could not have had known of the wedding of Domenico and Theodora, let alone of her death. And it is unlikely that he would have had first hand knowledge of Giovanni and Maria, as he would have been, at most, ten or eleven when they returned to Venice [16], baptized their only child and then died along with so many others when the plague, that killed them, arrived in 1007. I do not know why his slander is so oft quoted as being a eye-witness account when other, more trustworthy, accounts are available:

A traveler, Jacques Lesaige, speaks thus of it, not without astonishment, in describing a feast given by the Doge [Pietro]: ‘These lords, when they desire to eat, take the food with a silver fork.’ A little later Sabba da Castiglione mentions the use of forks a la Vénitienne to avoid seizing the food with the fingers.[17]

1 Cedrenus, Hist. Comp., ii. p452 (ed. Bonn) ...
2 Herrin, p.203-5
3 "Quibusdam furcinulis aureis atque bidentibus."
4 Hodgson, p192, similar translation from Bober, p251: "Her eunuch had to gather dew for her to wash in, because water was too harsh; he cut her food into tiny pieces for her to eat with a little gold, two tined fork"
5 Wollfman and Gold p22
6 Ibid
7 Henisch, p145
8 Hodgson, p192
9 Pertz SS., vii. p.36; i.p.170, ed. Monticolo: as refernced by Hodgson, p193.
10 Perhaps influenza or tuberculosis: I was unable to find any credible sources that described the symptoms of the plague.
11 Nicol, p46-7
12 http://www.friesian.com/romania.htm
13 As told by many sources.
14 Depending on the source.
15 Hodgson, p192
16 They were wedded in the "imperial chapel" in Constantinople. Nicol, p46
17 Buck, p85

Sources:

Buck, John Henry. Old Plate, Its Makers & Marks: Its Makers and Marks. Gorham Manufacturing Company, 1903.Google Books: Original from Harvard University. Digitized Jun , 007.

Cedrenus, Hist. Comp., ii. p.452 (ed. Bonn)

Henisch, Bridget Ann. Fast and Feast: Food In Medieval Society. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976.

Herrin, Judith. "Venice and the Fork," Byzantium, The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton & Oxford, 2007.

Hodgson, Francis Cotterell. The Early History of Venice: From the Foundation to the Conquest of Constantinople, A.D. 1204. G. Allen, 1901. Google Books: Original from the New York Public Library. Digitized Sep 11, 2007

Nicol, Donald MacGillivray. Byzantium and Venice: A Study in Diplomatic and Cultural Relations. Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Wollfman, P. and C, Gold. Forks Knives and Spoons. London, Thames and Hudson Limited 1994.

Oh, nose!

I made a mistake. The above scroll was listed as my 106th scroll for my second A&S 50 challenge. This is incorrect. The scroll was mostly done by Mistress Ekaterina Volkova. Mostly, meaning 95% of the work was by her. She had made a mistake on the dragon and asked if I could fix it and finish up the scroll. She had filled in the space between the wings of the drollery. I scraped the paint away and finished up the figure. Then I finished up the vines and added the white work as well as inking around all objects.

So, since I can only claim an assist for this scroll blank, I can't count it towards my challenge. I re-sized the image and printed it out so that it would fit on a 9x12" sheet.

It's not an exact copy: I made a few changes: such as removing the inner leaves from the bottom of the border. I figure that that will give me (or another calligrapher) will have another 1/4" of space to write. I am planning on using similar colors, only the vines have to be green. Well, they do. You can paint them anyway you wish, but I'll stick to green. Also, I don't know about Ekat's partially colored leaves: they look unfinished.

I really love the way these scrolls turn out: I just hate doing them. All of them leaves and vines. First you have to pencil them in, then ink over them. Then paint them, then re-ink them. So many fiddly bits! Well, here is the scroll with first layer of gold paint on it.

The completed scroll can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/11300872203/

Mistress Aleea Baga made me do it.

Mistress Aleea Baga has a superpower. She has the power to talk other people into doing things. She has talked me into running ranges, becoming a regional marshal, entering things into A&S competitions. I just hope that she never uses her powers for evil. Anywho. At Hollowtide she handed me a couple of scraps of pergamenta and asked me to paint some Kingdom badges on them (contrary to popular belief, we DO need some stinkin' badges). She was planning on mounting them in small frames under rounded glass. Kind of similar to Alfred the Great's jewel: http://britisharchaeology.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/highlights/alfred-jewel.html

I was kinda of busy and did not have time to work on them.... So I said, "Sure, I'll do it" and wondered, as she walked off, how she managed to talk me into it. Due to their size, it only took a couple of hours to complete.

The badges, the painted portion, needed to be 1.5" in diameter. It was a simple matter of pulling the badges from the signet's website and from my archives (I have only done AoA level scrolls, never grant level, so I have images of all of those) and dropping them into Microsoft Publisher. Using the guide lines and rulers, it was easy to size the images to exactly 1.5", then print them out and trace them using a lightbox. I picked the three most common AoA level awards (Golden Alce, for martial prowess; Sycamore, for A&S; and the Keystone, for service) and three of the GoA awards (the Fleur d'Æthelmearc, for A&S; the Gage, for heavy fighting prowess; and the White Horn, for thrown weapons).

I used thin coats of gouache to keep the pergamenta from curling up. I do not know how other scribes work with the stuff. When I was Baron of the Rhydderich Hael, I always hated signing any scrolls made with it; the ink, like my paint, seemed to float on the surface until it dried. I prefer working on paper: ink and paint soak into the material and there is less of a chance that it would be smudged or that it would run.

While I am posting, I should record this scroll blank. I plan on holding it for my next AoA scroll assignment. If the recipient has passed arms, I'll finish the scroll with his/her arms and color in the remaining leaves with matching colors.

Great food and a great name

If you are ever in St. Catharines, ON Canada, and you like Mexican food (real Mexican food, not just Tex-Mex), hunt down Eh Jose. I found them in a farmer's market a block away from the downtown library. The food is made to order and is awesome.

http://ehjose.ca/

Two new scrolls

I spent the day in Rising Waters. They held an A&S Scroll Day. I managed to complete two more scrolls for my 3rd A&S 50 Challenge (scrolls 147 and 148).

Both scrolls were made on Arches 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. I prefer getting the blocks of paper over loose sheets. The scrolls are 9x12". I use gouache: Reeves for colors and Holbein for the gold.

I used a lightbox to trace the images, then inked over the pencil lines. One the ink dried, I erased the graphite. I like to start with the gold paint: it tends to cover other colors. So, I put a heavy coat of gold down before I use any other color.

Once the gold had dried, I started with the other colors: red and green in the case of the 'S'. I had wanted this to be a simple image; one that could be completed in a few hours (and it was). The scrolls are for Rising Waters's scroll blank collection, which, I was told, was practically empty. 

Since these were done, not only at someone else house, but in another country, as well, I was unable to scan them. I tool pictures with my phone. Higher resolution images can be found at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/11142307003/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/11142121035/.

New scroll assignment

I received a new scroll assignment. As of this post, the illumination is complete and the calligraphy will be done tonight. I am a firm believer that it is better to get these assignments done as far in advance as possible. That way there is plenty of time to fix any issues.

Of course, I can't mention who it is for; wouldn't want to spoil the surprise.
The full image can be found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/10987804726/

The scroll is Arches 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. I prefer getting the blocks of paper over loose sheets. This scroll is 9x12". I use gouache: Reeves for colors and Holbein for the gold. I used bright crimson for the body and trimmed it with dark red. I inked all of the borders and then added the white down the middle of the dark red trim and for the scales.

Morello Wine

Here is an article I wrote for the AEstel (AEelmearc's newsletter).

The following is a cherry wine that is very nice when heated. Just the thing for cold, winter nights. This recipe comes from Kenelm Digby.

MORELLO WINE p97

To half an Aume of white wine, take twenty pounds of Morello Cherries, the stalks being first plucked off. Bruise the Cherries and break the stones. Pour into the Wine the juyce that comes out from the Cherries; but put all the solid substance of them into a long bag of boulter-cloth, and hang it in the Wine at the bung, so that it lie not in the bottom, but only reach to touch it, and therefore nail it down at the mouth of the bung. Then stop it close. For variety, you may put some clear juyce of Cherries alone (but drawn from a larger proportion of Cherries) into another parcel of Wine. To either of them, if you will Aromatise the drink, take to this quantity two Ounces of Cinnamon grosly broken and bruised, and put it in a little bag at the spiggot, that all the wine you draw may run through the Cinnamon.

You must be careful in bruising the Cherries, and breaking the stones. For if you do all at once, the Liquor will sparkle about. But you must first bruise the Cherries gently in a mortar, and rub through a sieve all that will pass, and strain the Residue hard through your hands. Then beat the remaining hard so strongly, as may break all the stones. Then put all together, and strain the clean through a subtil strainer, and put the solider substance into the bag to hang in the Wine.

An aume is about 40 gallons. A boulter cloth was the cloth used to sift white flour from whole ground grain: a cheese-cloth bag is a suitable substitution.

Ingredients for one half gallon:
1 gallon of sweet white wine.
1 pound of Morelllo cherries or other variety of sour cherries
1/4 of a stick of real cinnamon.
1 cheese-cloth bag
1 chopstick
1 food grade container, large enough to hold everything, with a screw-top lid.

You can scale this recipe up, as needed, by doubling the ingredients; just remember: 1 pound of cherries per gallon of wine.

Since hanging the cherries in the wine gives a better beverage than letting the bag rest on the bottom of the container, you will need a suitable container. I have made this in my brewing fermenters, with the bag stuck through the hole used for the airlock as well as with a large, clean, plastic pretzel container with a hole poked through the lid. Whatever the container you use, you will end up with the best results if the bag of cherries is suspended in the center of the wine, and not touching the sides or bottom of the container. Use a container large enough to hold the wine and the cherries such that the wine will completely surround the bag of cherries.

Start with 1 pound of whole Morello cherries or other sour cherries. Do not use canned or jarred cherries and nothing packed in syrup. Wash the cherries, pit them, pluck the stems off and squeeze the cherries to get the juice out and then pour the juice into your container and add the wine. You want to use a nice, sweet, white wine; whichever variety you prefer as long as it is sweet.

The original recipe calls for hitting the cherries with a mallet to break the cherry stones. Cherry stones contain a small amount of amygdalin which, when ingested, the body converts to cyanide. It is a small amount of cyanide, but it is still a dangerous poison and can react with not only the alcohol of the wine, but with a lot of medication. It is best to avoid it completely and pit your cherries.

Digby's recipe calls for pouring the wine over a bag of cinnamon, but I don't think that that brief contact is enough to impart enough of the spice into the wine. I prefer to add a stick (1/4 of a stick, to be clear) to the wine. This way the spice can infuse throughout the wine. Please use good cinnamon, not some powder out of a bottle.

Transfer the cherries to the cheese-cloth bag and hang the bag from container's lid. Push the bag through the lid and thread the chopstick through the bag to hold it in place and then close the lid. Cover the hole with some cling wrap to keep evaporation at bay.

Digby does not state how long to let this concoction sit; I recommend two days; not more than three. (Five is right out) After a couple of days, take out the bag of cherries and discard it. Fish out the cinnamon stick, wash it off, dry it and put it someplace safe: it can be reused. Pour the wine into a suitable container that can be sealed (wine bottle, mason jar). Since we will not be fermenting the beverage, you do not have to worry about airlocks or ageing, but you do need a container that can be made air tight. Kept out of sunlight and oxygen, your Morello wine will keep about two months at room temperature or up to six months in the 'fridge.

Morello wine is nice at room temperature and very, very nice when warm. You can heat the wine in a kettle, or in a pot, until it just starts to simmer. Pour into a mug and enjoy. Or, you can heat it up like a hot toddy: heat a fireplace poker until it is red hot and then plunge into a mug, three quarters filled with the wine. The hot hot poker will flash heat the wine and caramelize some of the sugar, making it sweeter. Be careful when doing this: "red hot" means more than "pretty colors". Wear oven mitts or fireplace gloves when doing this, because the wine will give off steam.


Source:
The Closet Of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened: Newly Edited, With Introduction, Notes, And Glossary, By Anne Macdonell. London: Philip Lee Warner. 1910

Hello everyone.

It was suggested to me that I should join the 21st Century and start a blog, if, for nothing else, to document everything I've been doing A&S wise. Someone had mentioned that I do very little in the way of A&S; I felt the need to correct that person by listing off what I had been doing. It was after running down a dozen or so things, I was told that I need to do a better job documenting what I do. So, here we are, with a blog.

This evening, I finished up a scroll blank, number 145 since I started the A&S 50 Challenge in March 2011.

This scroll is based on two manuscripts:
Border was inspired by Duke Albrecht's Table of Christian Faith (Winter Part), A Church, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.171, fol. 110r.
Figure inside of the "O" was inspired by the Lothian Bible MS M.791 fol. 142v.

The scroll is Arches 100% cotton, 140# hot-press watercolor paper. I prefer getting the blocks of paper over loose sheets. This scroll is 9x12". I use gouache: Reeves for colors and Holbein for the gold.

The border had a number of crows, inside of the "O", attacking a dove. I removed the middle of the letter, using Picture Publisher, and replaced it with the figure from Lothian Bible, who was standing inside of a "T". I printed out the resulting image and, using a lightbox, traced the image onto my paper. The diapering was done by printing out a checker pattern on a seprate page and tracing the boxes behind the figure.

Once the image was traced out, I inked over the pencil lines and then erased the graphite. After that, it was a simple matter to color in between the lines.

I did the diapering work before I figured out what colors to use for the figure. I wanted his to stand out from the diapering. In the end, I used purple for the tunic and light blue for the cloak. Neither color would blend in the blue and red of the background.

I went heavy on the gold to give it some texture. For the diapering, I used a thick coat of dark red and blue. For the figure, I used a very watered down base coat all over, with three layers over each area; each layer thicker and thus, darker, than the previous one. Once the paint was dry, I added the white work. I have found that with the Reeves gouache, the added white really makes the paint pop, especially the dark paints.

The full image can be found on my Flikr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calebreynolds/10954659705/