Medieval Home

My uncle let me borrow a book from my late grandmother's library called, "A Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century" (translated and edited by Tania Baynard).

The inside cover flap begins like this, "Around the year 1393 an elderly citizen of Paris married a girl of fifteen and presented her with a book of moral and domestic instruction that he had written to guide her." In the editor's Introduction, we learn that the author's name is unknown, but that he was most likely between 50 and 60 years old. In the author's prologue, he (the husband of the 15 year old) begins sweetly,

"Dear sister, because you are fifteen years old, you beseeched me, the week we were married, to be tolerant of your youth and inexperience until you had seen and learned more, and you promised to apply yourself diligently to instruction and to devote all your attention and industry to keeping my peace and love."

Throughout the book, the husband makes allowances for his young wife's need to sing, dance and cultivate flowers, and in the midst of his long treatise on home duties, makes sure she does not feel overwhelmed. The most interesting thing is, that he also passes along his advice acknowledging the fact that she might be widowed sooner than later (considering their huge age difference) and he wants her to know how to be a productive and loving wife for the husband she might have after him!

This book was such a sweet read, not just for the husband's obvious tenderness and care for the young girl, but also because he gives a lot of advice for the husband-wife relationship that is rather biblilcal and therfore still applicable to us,617 years later! Historically, this book is extremely interesting because it gives the reader little glimpses into Medieval life. I laughed a few times at the husband's comments and the nature of things he had to teach. I was quite inspired from reading the chapters on keeping a garden because, as a horticulturist's daughter, I love to garden and much of the advice the man was giving is still solid, pertainable gardening knowledge. By the end of those sections, I couldn't wait for Spring so I can start my gardens! There was even a brief section about horse care and various recipes.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

"Be a good confidant, and always remember to keep your husband's secrets. First, even without his knowledge, hide and conceal his misdeeds, faults or sins, if you know of any, so that he will not be ashamed." (as in, don't go around airing all your 'dirty laundry' and complaining to people about your husband's faults so as to ruin his reputation- a wife wouldn't want her husband to do that to her either, so be respectful.)

"Dear sister, know how to hide your secrets from everyone except your husband, and this will be good judgement. Do not think that someone else will hide for you that which you yourself cannot conceal....and he should also tell you everything...You two, man and woman, ought to be as one, and at all times and in all places the one should act on the other's advice. This is how wise people act and ought to act."

"In summer, take care that there are no fleas in your room or in your bed. I have heard that there are six ways you can do this..."

"If you are in a region where there are wolve's dens, I will on your behalf instruct Master Jehan, your steward...how to kill them without striking a blow, by the following recipe." (you have o read the book for the recipe, sorry.)

"Stuffed poultry: Take your chickens and cut their throats...take a tube, push it between the skin and the flesh, and blow the chicken up." (hahaha- chicken balloon anyone?)

My FAVORITE quote from the book would not make sense if out of context, so you will have to get the book and read it and then I will tell you. In the meantime, here is a long quote that is my second favorite section and epitomizes the husband's wisdom and regard for his young wife, her life with him and concern for her relationship with a future husband after he is gone:

"I believe that when two good and honest people are married, all other affections, except their love for each other, are withdrawn, annulled and forgotten. It seems to me that when they are together they look at each other more than they look at others, they come together and embrace each other, and they would rather talk and communicate with each other than with anyone else. When they are separated, they think of each other and say in their hearts, 'This is what I will do, this is what I will say, this is what I will ask him when I see him again.' All their special pleasures, greatest desires, and perfect joys are in pleasing and obeying each other. But if they don't love one another, they have no more than a routine sense of duty and respect for each other, which is not enough between many couples...Concerning what I have said about being very loving to your husband, it is certainly true that every man ought to love and cherish his wife, and every woman should love and cherish her husband..." (he continues with an explanation from Genesis)