Medieval Seating and Dining

 The origins of modern day seating arrangements for dining. — “As a rule, one knife had to serve for two people, and often a bowl of soup was used by two persons. For this reason the party giving the dinner arranged his guests in couples, trying to place people together who would be congenial and not adverse to this common use of table appointments.”— Image source, Pinterest

A description of a dinner given in 1350 shows that there has been a vast improvement in table manners since then:

As a rule, one knife had to serve for two people, and often a bowl of soup was used by two persons. For this reason the party giving the dinner arranged his guests in couples, trying to place people together who would be congenial and not adverse to this common use of table appointments. Spoons were seldom supplied to the guests, and the soup was drunk directly from the bowl, the latter usually having side handles by which it was held. 

In less refined company, there were no separate soup bowls, only one large porringer, which was passed around to the guests in turn. The diners helped themselves to the pieces of meat they desired from the common dish with their fingers. Napkins were considered a luxury, and were only provided in very aristocratic and wealthy families.—Philadelphia Inquirer, 1903

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Chaucer and “Fingers of Courtesy”

From Chaucer’s “Parliament of Fowls,” circa 1381-1382 –In the 14th century, forks were not in use . At the time, those who exhibited good manners at the table, ate with the thumb and first two fingers. These were called, “the fingers of courtesy.”

Table Manners at the Time of Chaucer 

were of a Decidedly Primitive Character

Table manners at the time of Chaucer were described in a lecture by Kenneth Base, author and poet, in “A Holiday in London in the Days of Chaucer.” Etiquette in those days (the latter half of the fourteenth century) demanded that meat should be held between two fingers and a thumb of the left hand, and no more, if one was to be received in polite society. After soup, pike roasted in claret and favored with strange and varied spices was eaten. Then followed partridge, roasted with saffron, cloves and ginger, and jam tarts and jelly. It was the custom to change the cloth with the courses, and one read of one feast in which each new cloth was scented with a perfume appropriate to the dish. In Chaucer's day, the bath in construction was not unlike a miniature pulpit, and a bouquet of sweet scented herbs was hung over it for the stream to draw out their refreshing qualities. -Healdsburg Enterprise, 1922

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

14th C. Boke of Curtasye Etiquette

King Edward I of England, 1272-1307 AD. Known also as "Edward Longshanks," due to his great height and stature, was perhaps the most successful of the medieval monarchs. The first twenty years of his reign marked a high point of cooperation between crown and community in England, though his campaigns and efforts to capture territory in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, etc... "aroused in the Scots a hatred of England that would endure for generations." http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon30.html

From "The Boke of Curtasye" 

On reaching a Lord’s gate, give the Porter your weapon, and ask leave to go in. If the master is of low degree, he will come to you: if of high, the Porter will take you to him. At the Hall-door, take off your hood and gloves, greet the Steward, etc.., at the dais, bow to the Gentlemen on each side of the hall both right and left; notice the yeomen, then stand before the screen till the Marshal or Usher leads you to the table. 

Be sedate and courteous if you are set with the gentlemen.  

Cut your loaf in two, the top from the bottom; cut the top crust in, and the bottom in  cut the top crust in, and the bottom in.  

Put your trencher before you, and don’t eat or drink till your Mess is brought from the kitchen, lest you be thought starved or a glutton.  

Have your nails clean.  

Don’t bite your bread, but break it.  

Don’t quarrel at table, or make grimaces. 

Don’t cram your cheeks out with food like an ape, for if any one should speak to you, you can’t answer, but must wait. 

Don’t eat on both sides of your mouth. 

Don’t laugh with your mouth full, or sup up your potage noisily. 

Don’t leave your spoon in the dish or on its side, but clean your spoon. 

Let no dirt off your fingers soil the cloth. 

Don’t put into the dish bread that you have once bitten. 

Dry your mouth before you drink. 

Don’t call for a dish once removed, or spit on the table: that’s rude. 

Don’t scratch your dog. 

If you blow your nose, clean your hand; wipe it with your skirt or put it through your tippet. 

Don’t pick your teeth at meals, or drink with food in your mouth, as you may get choked, or killed, by its stopping your wind. 

Tell no tale to harm or shame your companions. 

Don’t stroke the cat or dog. 

Don’t dirty the table cloth with your knife. 

Don’t blow on your food, or put your knife in your mouth, or wipe your teeth or eyes with the table cloth. 

If you sit by a good man, don’t put your knee under his thigh. 

Don’t hand your cup to any one with your back towards him. 

Don’t lean on your elbow, or dip your thumb into your drink, or your food into the salt cellar: That is a vice. 

Don’t spit in the basin you wash in or loosely (?) before a man of God. 

If you go to school you shall learn: 

1. Cross of Christ,
2. Pater Noster, 
3. Hail Mary and the Creed, 
4. In the name of the Trinity, 
5. of the Apostles, 
6. the Confession.  

Seek the kingdom of God, and worship Him.  At church, take holy water; pray for all Christian companions; kneel to God on both knees, to man only on one. At the Altar, serve the priest with both hands. Speak gently to your father and mother, and honour them. Do to others as you would they should do to you. Don’t be foolishly meek. The seed of the righteous shall never beg or be shamed. Be ready forgive, and fond of peace. If you cannot give an asker goods, give him good words. Be willing to help every one. Give your partner his fair share. Go on the pilgrimages (?) you vow to saints, lest God take vengeance on you. Don’t believe all who speak fair: the Serpent spoke fair words (to Eve). Be cautious with your words, except when angry. Don’t lie, but keep your word. Don’t laugh too often, or you’ll be called a shrew or a fool.   

Man’s 3 enemies are: the Devil, the Flesh, and the World. Destroy these, and be sure of heaven. Don’t strive with your lord, or bet or play with him. In a strange place don’t be too inquisitive or fussy. If a man falls, don’t laugh, but help him up: your own head may fall to your feet. At the Mass, if the priest doesn’t please you, don’t blame him. Don’t tell your secrets to a shrew. Don’t beckon, point, or whisper. When you meet a man, greet him, or answer him cheerily if he greets you: don’t be dumb, lest men say you have men say you have no mouth. Never speak improperly of women, for we and our fathers were all born of women.  

A wife should honour and obey her husband, and serve him.  

Try to reconcile brothers if they quarrel.  

At a gate, let your equal precede you; go behind your superior and your master unless he bids you go beside him. 

On a pilgrimage don’t be third man: 3 oxen can’t draw a plough. 

Don’t drink all that’s in a cup offered you; take a little. 

If you sleep with any man, ask what part of the bed he likes, and lie far from him. 

If you journey with any man, find out his name, who he is, where he is going. 

With friars on a pilgrimage, do as they do. 

Don’t put up at a red (haired and faced) man or woman’s house. 

Answer opponents meekly, but don’t tell lies. 

Before your lord at table, keep your hands, feet, and fingers still. 

Don’t stare about, or at the wall, or lean against the post. 

Don’t pick your nose, scratch your arm, or stoop your head. 

Listen when you’re spoken to. 

Never harm child or beast with evil eye.

Don’t blush when you’re chaffed, or you’ll be accused of mischief. 

Don’t make faces.

Wash before eating. 

Sit where the host tells you; avoid the highest place unless you’re told to take it.

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

Etiquette, Daniel of Beccles and The Book of Civilized Man

The Latin, "Urbanus Magnus Danielis Becclesiensis," or "The Book of Civilized Man" by Daniel of Beccles, is thought to be the first English book of manners, or courtesy book.  It most likely dates from the beginning of the 13th century.  To date, there is no full translation into English, but there is an edited Latin edition of 1939 by the Irish scholar Josiah Gilbart Smyly. It is a significant book, because in the later Middle Ages dozens of this type of courtesy book were produced. 

Books of etiquette, both ancient and modern, have a long history. As a general rule, a book of etiquette is a mark of a dynamic and spirited society, as opposed to a stable society. Beccles' book, being the earliest known, represents the awakening to etiquette and decorum in English court society. 

The royal court of Henry II~ Historians believe that Daniel of Beccles may have been a member of Henry II's court.  In the 16th Century, John Bale, wrote that he had seen a document showing Daniel in Henry's court for over 30 years. A Henry is mentioned in the text, and some of the manuscripts can be dated to the early 13th century, make it very probable the poem dates from that period.

The Book of Civilized Man is a 3000 line, Latin verse poem, offering proper advice on a wide range of social situations encountered in daily, typical medieval life.  These examples include:

• 'If you wish to belch, remember to look up to the ceiling.' 
• 'Do not attack your enemy while he is squatting to defecate.' 
• 'If there is something you do not want people to know, do not tell it to your wife.' 
• 'Say thank you to your host.' 
• 'Don't mount your horse in the hall.' 
• 'If visitors had already eaten, give them drink anyway.' 
• 'Loosen your reins when riding over a bridge.' 
• 'Receive gifts from great men with gratitude.' 
• 'If you are a judge, be just.' 
• 'Eating at the table of the rich, speak little.'
• 'Sitting at table as a guest, you should not put your elbows on the table.'
• 'In front of grandees, do not openly excavate your nostril by twisting your fingers.'
• 'While food is hidden in your mouth, let your tongue not minister to words.' 

The book ends with 'Old King Henry first gave to the uncourtly the teaching written in this book.'




🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Early Etiquette and Table Manners’ Books

... in Medieval Times, the Renaissance and Beyond

The Term “Etiquette”

Rules of Court affixed to a post... Did our use of the word “etiquette” actually originate from the Old French, “esquiter”?

The term etiquette may derive from the old French 'esquiter' (to affix), a reference to the daily rules of a royal court, which were affixed to the wall for all to read. Such rules explained the seating of honored guests on the host's right in southern Europe and on the left in Scandinavia.

The earliest medieval etiquette document, Count Anthimus's Letter to the Frankish King Theodoric, written around 530 CE, instructed the King about the dangers of gluttony and intemperance. The underlying principle to avoid extremes derives from the familiar Roman dictum nihil nimis (nothing in excess). Anthemis insisted on self control and invade against over indulgence at the table. One polite custom he initiated, the use of no more than three fingers to pick up meat, put an end to unsightly grabbing.

Theoderic the Great, often referred to as Theodoric, was king of the Germanic Ostrogoths, ruler of Italy, regent of the Visigoths, and a viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Alfonsi’s fame rests mainly on “thirty-three tales” composed in Latin, at the beginning of the 12th century. This work is a collection of oriental tales of “moralizing character” or manners. The storyteller and moralist Petrus Alphonsi's Disciplina Clericalis, or Training for a Gentleman, (ca 1100 CE) written in the form of a dialogue between father and son, explained the rudiments of offering guests water for washing hands. Rules for diners explained a necessity of eating only from one's own bowl, taking small bites, wiping the mouth before drinking, and emptying the mouth before speaking. Similar guidebooks reminded the polite guest never to dredge food in the salt cellar. Correct salting required lifting grains of salt by means of a clean knife blade or extracting a pinch a time with clean fingers. An Italian guide, The Treatise on Courtesy, (ca 1200 CE), of Tomasino di Circlaria (or Thomasin von Zerklaere), rooted its advice in musings on gentility and correct behavior a table. The sensible precepts set forth in and other early European books on manners has changed little up to the present time. 

In Syria, the theologian Gregor Bar Hebraeus (also Gregor Bar'Ebraya or Gregor of Abulpharagus) summarized in table wisdom and effects in Ethicon, (ca 1265 CE).  Mindful of the spiritual value of food, he urged diners to be clean, eat quietly and sparsely, and welcome outsiders to the family table. He recommended that meals be preceded by a religious blessing and instructed diners to maintain an upright posture while eating. He also urged that, out of respect for God's bounty, no crumb should be left uneaten.

Gentility at Table

The Luttrell Psalter; Sir Geoffrey at table surrounded by his family and two Dominican friars. Two servants wait on them...

In the late Middle Ages, European behavior manuals introduced a new generation of advice to gentility and deportment.  These guidebooks derived from the code of courtly manners intended to suit royalty and to quell altercations arising from the dispute over proximity to the king at table. Representative of these many volumes, which paralleled each other in tone and scope, were the German Der Winsbeke (ca 1200's), The Advice of a Knight to His Son: the Spanish Castigas y Doctrinas que in Savior Dava a Sus Hijas (Admonitions and Doctrines from a Wise Parent to His Daughters, 1406) in which a father advised his offspring on restraint in drinking and eating, and fairness in dealing with table servants; and the essayist Christine de Pisan's Enseignements`a Son Filz Jean de Castel (Instruction to Her Son Jean de Castel, ca 1430), and Livre des Trois Virtus (Book of the Three Virtues, 1405).

The English issued similar texts - Boke  of Curtasye, 1440, The Book of Curtesey of Lytel John 1477, and Wynkyn de Worde's Boke of Kervinge (Book on Carving, 1513) which assisted kitchen workers and table servants with the proper placement of meats and vegetables on platters, slicing of tarts and pies, and ladling of sauces.

Unlike medieval etiquette specialists, Baldassare Castiglione, author of Il Libro del Cortegiano  (The Book of the Coutier, 1528), emphasized grace and elegance over pragmatism. One mark of elegance was the male diner's spreading of his napkin over one shoulder as opposed to the female custom of covering the lap.

The friar and rhetorician Bonvesin della Riva (or Bonvicino da Riva), author of De Quinquaginta Curialitatibus ad Mensam, (Concerning Fifty Gentilities for the Table, ca 1290), encouraged guests to speak graciously to others at table before sitting down to eat. He advocated courtly manners, proper attire, affability, good posture and self-control.  Among the most intolerable behaviors, he included overfilling the mouth, drunkenness, slurping, sneezing and coughing in the direction of other diners, and criticizing the food. He considered picking over dishes a disgrace and abhorred the practice of sopping bread in wine. As a gesture of chivalry, he suggested that a man should cut up meat for any woman with whom he shared a platter. To ensure polite conversation, he forbade swearing and the raising of unpleasant, vulgar, or controversy all topics.

Francesc Eiximenis, one of the most relevant writers of the 14th century.

Some of the guidelines for good manners sprang from sound principles of health and safety. For example, Petrus Alphonsi's admonition about chewing thoroughly before swallowing is sensible advice to prevent choking. For the conclusion of the meal, he admonished: “After eating, ask for hand-water, for this is required by medical teaching and it is the decent and easy thing to do.” A fourteenth-century treatise on dining by Arnaud de Villaneuve, a physician and chemist from Montpellier, France, explained the role of sobriety and moderation in alleviating dullness and lassitude.

Arnaud de Villaneuve, explained the role of sobriety and moderation in alleviating dullness and lassitude.

One author of a courtesy book, Francesc Eiximenis, a Franciscan friar from Catalonia, inveighed strongly against gobbling food and drinking too much. Chapters 29 thru 37 of his text covers rules of conduct similar to those of Bonvesin.  Concerning women, Eiximenes thought it best to sit beside rather than opposite a lady. He warned about spraying other diners with food, picking the teeth, and over doing compliments to the host.  He suggested that guests go to the toilet to rid the body of gas before sitting down at table. Serving with style and avoiding rude behavior during meals was, to Eiximenis, a form of patriotism -- A way of elevating Catalonia among other European states.

In Germany, Tischzuchten (table etiquette guides), including author Sebastian Brant’s satiric “Das Narrenschiff” (Ship of Fools, 1454) established the importance of propriety at table, including hand washing before meals. Renaissance guides moved from simple admonitions against unseemly behavior in serving and dining towards matters of deference to lords and ladies.  Unlike medieval etiquette specialists, Baldassare Castiglione, author of Il Libro del Cortegiano  (The Book of the Coutier, 1528), emphasized grace and elegance over pragmatism. One mark of elegance was the male diner’s spreading of his napkin over one shoulder as opposed to the female custom of covering the lap.  Less pretentious and status conscious was the Dutch humanist scholar Erasmus, who published De Civiltate Morum Puerilium (On Civility in Boys in 1530), which took up such matters as the wiping of greasy fingers and blowing the nose at table.

To avoid excesses and indignities, the English consulted such texts as Youth's Behavior, or Decency in Conversation Among Men, 1640, an anonymous work that remained a handy touchstone into the time of George Washington. The first printed guide, The Fine Gentleman’s Etiquette; or Lord Chesterfield’s Advice to His Son Verified, 1776, established pecking order between underlings and their superiors who could retaliate against discourtesy with a vengeance or ostracism.  In 1800, Domestic Management offered such instruction to the house wife as to how to improve servants' manners. The footman, according to the text, should learn to open lobster claws in the kitchen rather than in the view of the dining room door. Gradually, the rules of proper behavior trickled down to the middle class via such books as Etiquette, or A Guide to the Usages of Society, 1836, which offered warnings against vulgarity or improprieties that would offend their betters. Thus, newcomers to wealth learned how to conceal their social inexperience. –From Encyclopedia of Kitchen History - Mary Ellen Snodgrass, 2004

🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia