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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801474744 ISBN 13: 9780801474743

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2009

Synopsis

"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 protect him from holes in the roof and smoky fires, and do not quarrel with him, but be sweet, pleasant and peaceful with him. Make certain that in winter he has a good fire without smoke and let him slumber, warmly wrapped, cozy between your breasts, and in this way bewitch him. In summer take care that there are no fleas in your bedroom or bed."

"If just once you displease him you will have a difficult time ever appeasing him enough so that the stain of his anger does not remain engraved and written on his heart. Although he may not show it or mention it, your misdeed cannot soon be smoothed over and erased. Should a second act of disobedience occur, watch out for his vengeance... "

"Gardeners say that rosemary seeds do not ever grow in French soil, but if you pluck little branches from a rosemary plant, strip them from the top downwards, take them by the ends and plant them, they will grow. If you want to send them far away, you must wrap the branches in waxed cloth, sew them up and then smear the outside with honey; then powder with wheat flour and you may send them wherever you wish."

"But as soon as you arrive home, be diligent that you yourself or your men ahead of you, feed the dogs well, then give them fresh clean water in a basin to drink. Next have them put to bed on nice straw in a warm place, in front of the fire if they are wet or muddy, and let them always be held subject to the whip. If you act this way, they will not pester people at the table or sideboard and they will not get into the beds."

"Since you must send Master Jehan to the butcher's shop, a list follows of the names of all the butchers' shops in Paris and the meats that they supply: At the Porte-de-Paris there are nineteen butchers who by common estimate sell weekly, if you average the busy season with the slow season: 1,900 sheep, 400 beefcattle, 400 pigs and 200 calves."

―from The Good Wife's Guide

In the closing years of the fourteenth century, an anonymous French writer compiled a book addressed to a fifteen-year-old bride, narrated in the voice of her husband, a wealthy, aging Parisian. The book was designed to teach this young wife the moral attributes, duties, and conduct befitting a woman of her station in society, in the almost certain event of her widowhood and subsequent remarriage. The work also provides a rich assembly of practical materials for the wife's use and for her household, including treatises on gardening and shopping, tips on choosing servants, directions on the medical care of horses and the training of hawks, plus menus for elaborate feasts, and more than 380 recipes.

The Good Wife's Guide is the first complete modern English translation of this important medieval text also known as Le Ménagier de Paris (the Parisian household book), a work long recognized for its unique insights into the domestic life of the bourgeoisie during the later Middle Ages. The Good Wife's Guide, expertly rendered into modern English by Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose, is accompanied by an informative critical introduction setting the work in its proper medieval context as a conduct manual. This edition presents the book in its entirety, as it must have existed for its earliest readers. The Guide is now a treasure for the classroom, appealing to anyone studying medieval literature or history or considering the complex lives of medieval women. It illuminates the milieu and composition process of medieval authors and will in turn fascinate cooking or horticulture enthusiasts. The work illustrates how a (perhaps fictional) Parisian householder of the late fourteenth century might well have trained his wife so that her behavior could reflect honorably on him and enhance his reputation.

About this title

About the Author

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

Review

"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."

(Laurie A. Finke, Kenyon College)

"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."

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

"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."

(Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, University of Pittsburgh)

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0801474744
• ISBN 13: 9780801474743
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384