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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent New Text by Grewe and Hieatt
Review: Regarding the LIBELLUS DE ARTE COQUINARIA AN EARLY NORTHERN COOKBOOK, I can report as to exactly what this volume is all about. The LIBELLUS is among the oldest of culinary recipe collections & dates from the early thirteenth century. It survives in 4 versions in three languages... Danish, Icelandic, & Low German. It is thought to date back to possibly even the 12th century. It's a small collection of only 35 recipes and was published as part of the Collection included in AN OLD ICELANDIC MEDICAL MISCELLANY [Ms. Royal Irish Academy 23D 43.]in 1931 by Henning Larsen.What this new 158 page book does is to bring together the four versions, translate them, add textual notes, commentary indices, glossaries, and bibliographies. As such, it offers a rare glimpse into the world of early culinary manuscripts in Northern Europe. I should mention that it's the work of the late Rudolf Grewe (who provided us with the LIBRE DE SENT SOVI in 1979) and Constance B. Hieatt who is of course the scholar behind PLEYN DELIT, CURYE ON INGLYSCH, and AN ORDINANCE OF POTTAGE. The scholarship is as expected excellent. So, if you collect medieval culinary texts, this is one for your shelves. Unlike PLEYN DELIT, it does not contain modernized versions of the medieval recipes, but the composite translations offer many details and much commentary for any cook wishing to create their own working versions of these early recipes.
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