medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Sun, 2009-03-29 at 00:02 -0400, Nancy Spies wrote:
>
> "Possibly somone cognizant of monastic appetites might
> calculate the number of monks at St. John's from the following
> provisions. Every day the monastery was to receive 62 loaves
> of bread made of fine flour ('simula'), and 6 of coarser meal
> ('farina'), each weighing a pound; every month, 3 'tummini' of
> 'simula' and an equil amount of 'farina'; every year 998
> (sic!) 'congia' of wine, of which a fourth part was to be 'de
> pede', and 21 barrels of tuna fish, 'et quarta ad magnum
> barrilium cum sale et fustibus preparata.'"
>
> Is there a way to work out the number of monks? I am thinking
> that the number of daily loaves of bread might give an
> estimation, that there might be a rule-of-thumb applicable
> here?
Meeting the caloric and protein needs of an active adult male requires
approximately 3 pounds of bread per day. Appendix 1 of Donald W. Engels'
brilliant classic "Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the
Macedonian Army" gives the data and assumptions that go into that
approximation.
Before you calculate that there were 20-25 monks, though, I think that
you need additional information. What do we know about the 6 tummini of
flour that was received each month? Presumably the monks would also have
consumed porridge (and beer?) as part of their normal diet, and at least
some of the grain would have been used in its production. Was it also
used to bake the bread that the monks received? What else did this
monastery typically consume? Cheese, eggs, fish, and vegetables would
all be common monastic fare.
The best that you might be able to do with this information is to
estimate a lower bound of 20 monks.
Phil Feller
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