From: "Frank Schaer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 19:24:22 +100
Subject: Re: Monks & wine
Priority: normal
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
From: [log in to unmask] (Tiina Kala)
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 1996 12:40:21 +0000
Subject: Monks & wine
Priority: normal
Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
On the margin of a 13-th c. copy of a compendium written on the basis
of Ordo Misse by Innocence III and a part of Petrus Lombardus (IV)
used probably by the Livonian cistercians and later (14.-15-th c.?) by
Tallinn
dominicans there is a verse:
Dat vinum purum tibi ter tria commoda
Primum confortat stomachum cerebrum reddit tibi letum
Fumos evacuat et viscera plena relaxat
Augeat et ingenium visum nutrit linit aures
Sit tibi mensura comes nec vacues et opes
This and other maginal notes in this code (TLA, f 230, n 1, s Cm 4,
f. 44v) can date from the very end of the 13-th c. or from the
first half of the 14-th c
Tiina Kala
These verses sound like they come from the Regimen Sanitatis
Salernitanum; the first two should presumably be printed:
Dat vinum purum tibi ter tria commoda: primum
Confortat stomachum cerebrum reddit tibi letum
Our system was down yesterday, and so I didn't actually receive
Frank Schaer's original listing, but this is a subject that has long been
of interest to me, and in relation to Tiina Kala's reply, it strikes me
that medieval monks must have kept very healthy indeed. From what
evidence I have seen, the daily allowance of wine for monks in
medieval monasteries averaged about 1 litre per day; at
Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the 17th century, it was as high as 2 litres
per day. In addition to this, virtually every monastery, at least in
England, had a brewhouse within the cloister, except for a few down
in Devon and Somerset, where there is evidence of cider presses.
One possibility that has occurred to me is that perhaps medieval wine
(and/or beer) was not as potent as it generally is now; another is that
perhaps the monks had to share their allowance with servants, but I
have never run across firm evidence about the existence or extent of
personal servants in medieval monasteries. So, my question to the
list is: were medieval monks sloshed the whole time?
Jim Bugslag
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