The Good Wife's Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book

Published by Cornell University Press 2012

The Good Wife's Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris)

A Medieval Household Book

Translated by: Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801461965

Overview
Contents

About this book

"You said that you would not fail to improve yourself according to my teaching and correction, and you would do everything in your power to behave according to my wishes." [Prologue] "I urge you to bewitch and bewitch again your future husband, and...

Author / Editor information

Gina L. Greco is Associate Professor of French at Portland State University. Christine M. Rose is Professor of English at Portland State University.

Reviews

Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh:

This new—and first complete—English translation of the Ménagier de Paris makes available to a broad audience one of the key texts for our understanding of late medieval mentalities. Its lively language, excellent introduction, and copious notes make this guide to good living in every sense (from moral instruction to recipes for delicious meals) useful to students, scholars, and anyone interested in medieval culture.

Laurie A. Finke, Kenyon College:

In a new, highly readable, and lively translation of an important medieval document, Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose have done a wonderful job of maintaining the integrity of the original text while rendering it into colloquial English. As a result, The Good Wife's Guide is eminently teachable. It is a cultural artifact in its own right, one that compiles a wide range of very different kinds of material, from moral exhortations to stories to practical instructions on household topics such as gardening and hawking to recipes-all brought together for a very specific purpose. It offers great insight into how both medieval books and households were put together.

Lynn Staley, Harrington and Shirley Drake Professor of the Humanities and Medieval and Renaissance Studies in the Department of English, Colgate University:

Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose bring to The Good Wife's Guide well-translated and dignified prose, intelligent commentary, and up-to-date scholarship. They have done a service to all those who teach medieval literature, women's literature, gender studies, and late medieval culture by having gracefully and carefully prepared a text of such significance and interest.

Paul Freedman:

A cookbook section contains over 350 recipes, and if many of them are taken from authorities such as the royal chef Taillevent, the author is quite opinionated about what works and what doesn't; he improves some recipes and offers others that seem to be his own. No man before or since has known more about running an affluent household, from keeping vermin out of linen to shopping in the market to caring for hunting hawks. The work has a peculiar tone, bossy yet tender, even elegiac. In their introduction the translators emphasize the husband's firm desire to subordinate his wife, but acknowledge that they found the book more appealing than they had originally expected.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction. Maid to Order: The Good Wife of Paris Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Translation Protocols Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
The Good Wife’S Guide: Le Ménagier De Paris A Medieval Household Book
Prologue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
Introductory Note to Articles 1.1– 1.3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
1.1. Prayers and Orderly Dress Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
1.2. Behavior and Attire in Public Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
1.3. The Mass, Confession, the Vices and Virtues Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
1.4. On Chastity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
1.5. Devotion to Your Husband Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	94
1.6 Obedience (Including the Story of Griselda) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	104
1.7 The Care of the Husband’s Person Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
1.8 The Husband’s Secrets Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Introductory Note to Article 1.9 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
1.9 Providing Your Husband with Good Counsel (Including the Story of Melibee) Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Introductory Note to Article 2.1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
2.1. Le Chemin De Povreté Et De Richesse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
2.2. Horticulture Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
2.3. Choosing and Caring for Servants and Horses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Introductory Note to Article 3.2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
3.2. Hawking Treatise Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
2.4. Menus Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
2.5. Recipes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Glossary of Culinary Terms Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355

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