Medieval table manners

When you attend a feast at the lords castle, you will need to behave and show that you have table manners. One of the things was (and still is) that you had to wash your hands. From the 12th until the late 14th century, an aquamanile was used to hold and pour water (aqua) over the hands (manile), although the name aquamanile for the vessel was invented in the 19th century. The real name of the vessel was lavoratorium, and the bowl receiving the water was called manilia. The aquamanile was a heavily decorated vessel, often cast in bronze or brass in the form of animals like lions, griffins, stags, or men. They were a luxurious show-piece on the lords table. For more humble lords (or guild-masters) less expensive aquamaniles were made from baked clay. That aquamaniles were also used by medieval citizens is shown by the fact that they were mentioned in two (of sixty) inventories of the city of Deventer, the Netherlands. One of such a stoneware aquamanile we encountered during a visit to the Kolnischen Stadtmuseums in 2012.

The Kolner aquamanile is 16.2 cm high and 17.5 cm long. It has a light yellow glaze with orange-brown spots. The inside is also glazed orange-brown. Dated 13th century. 

Also in the Netherlands medieval stoneware aquamaniles were found: a very beautiful one in Castle Hoensbroek and two others are on display in the Booijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam. These are shown below as well as some other from the Victoria and Albert museum in London.

Two aquamaniles from the Booijmans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Left: An aquamanile dating around 1200-1300, made from white earthenware and glazed with a copper-oxide leadglaze. Size 18 cm. Right: A stoneware aquamanile dating from 1400-1500 with a saltglaze. Size 13 cm. Images from the museum database.

The aquamanile from Castle Hoensbroek which was found in the castle moat. 
The figure is supposed to be a ram. The aquamanile is dated mid 14th century and decorated with green-tin glaze. 
Image from internet.

Aquamanile of red earthenware in the form of a stag covered with a yellow glaze tinged with green. It has a tubular body and the antlers lie back to form the handle. The hind legs are missing. Found in Rye, UK and dated  around 1300-1399.  Sizes: Height: 24 cm, Length: 35.5 cm. Victoria and Albert museum, London, UK.

Late medieval / early renaissance aquamanile from Pesaro, Italy and dated 1490-1500. Tin-glazed earthenware, painted with colours. Height: 41.5 cm, Length: 36 cm - twice as large compared to the other ewers. 

Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.

It may not come as a surprise that we  liked to have an aquamanile on our table as well, especially during visits to chic places, like castle halls. Anne has made a lion-shaped aquamanile from white baked clay and glazed it with a green glaze both in- and outside. The pouring spout is at the lion's mouth, while the vessel can be filled with water through a hole in the middle of its back.

 

The Lion aquamanile on the dressoir in the castle hall of Castle Loevestein.

And of course we (do have table manners and) used it at our dinner in the castle hall of Castle Loevestein a few weeks ago. In the 'Mesnagier de Paris', a 14th century cook- and housekeeping book, a description is given for the water used to wash the hands:

'Pour faire eaue a laver mains sur table, mectez bouillir de la sauge, puis coulez l'eaue et faictes reffroidier jusques a plus que tiede. Ou vous mectez comme dessus comomille et marjolaine, ou vous mectez du romarin, et cuire avec l'escorche d'orenge. Et aussi feuilles de lorier y sont bonnes.'

This has been translated into the following recipe:
Boil 1 litre water with 2 branches of sage or 1 branch chamomile and 1 branch of marjoram or 1 branch of rosemary and strips of untreated peel of two bitter oranges. Infuse, pass, and serve in an aquamanile over a washing basin.

 

Sources used:
Mittelalter in Koln - eine auswahl aus dem bestanden des Kolnischen stadtmuseums. W. Schafke and M. Trier (editors). Emons:, 2010. ISBN 978-3-89705-654-1.
Huusraet - het stedelijk woonhuis in de Bourgondische tijd. B. Dubbe. Uitgeverij Poldervonsten, 2012. ISBN 341-5688-943-1.
Fêtes gourmandes au moyen âge. J-L. Flandrin and C. Lambert. Imprimerie Nationale, 1998. ISBN 2-7433-0268-2.

Byzantine Chess

Byzantine chess or Zatrikion is a chess variant that was popular in medieval times in the Byzantine Empire. It is played on a round chess board, where the game pieces face each other on both sides. The game is first mentioned in 947 in the Arab book Murûj adh-dhahab (The meadows of gold). The writer and historian Al-Mas'ûdî (died 956 AD) connected the origin of chess in Persia under the reign of Khosraw I Anushirwan with the book Kalîlah wa Dimnah, a collection of Indian fables. On chess, Al-Masûdî wrote: ‘by far the most frequent use of ivory is for manufacture of men for chess and nard’ (nard is the predecessor of backgammon). He also described five chess variants: oblong chess (al-mustatîla), decimal chess (at-tâmma or complete chess), circular chess (ar-rûmîya or Byzantine chess), astronomical chess (al-falakîya, celestial chess) and limb chess (al-jawârhîya, which is played over a 7x8 board with 6 pieces – tongue/eye/ear/hand/foot/heart – for each side; unfortunately the rules of this game are lost). No images of a medieval Byzantine chess board are known, and, as the playing pieces are identical to normal medieval chess pieces, no specific game pieces can be attributed to Byzantine chess.

The board 

Our board is made of poplar with walnut edges. The circles and radiant lines are carved in the wood with help of a sharpened compass. The board is finished in linseed oil; the incised lines appear to have a darker shade as they collected more linseed oil.

The Byzantine chess board and the set-up of the pieces.

Game pieces

Because the ‘squares’ have different sizes – the smaller ring, the smallest squares – on the board, the game pieces have to fit the smallest square. The game pieces made for 4-season chess and Grande Acredex were made of clay, and were too large for the smallest squares in Byzantine chess. Therefore, I made the chess pieces of this set from wood. The game pieces are carved from beech, and loosely based on the 12th century Sandomierz chess set found in Poland. The king and counsellor (ferz) are based on wooden medieval chess pieces found in Novgorod, Russia.

The Sandomierz chess set, carved from bone. The two sets differentiate from each other 
by the decorative double lines (see e.g. the knights at the front).

 
The separate chess pieces of the Sandomierz chess set. All have double/triple decorative lines at the bottom and belong to one playing set. First row: pawn (top view), bishop/elephant (side view), king (overview), counsellor (side view). Second row: king (side view),  knight (front view), pawn (overview) and rook (side view). All images of this chess set are from the Sandomierz museum website.



Three 14th century wooden chess pieces from Novgorod: a rook and two kings (they do not belong to the same sets). Right image from internet; numbered images from the book ‘Wood use in medieval Novgorod’, Oxbow publishers, UK.

 

For the rooks, I used a square piece of wood. For the knights and bishops/elephants, I used a piece of beech made slightly oval. For the pawns, a 12 mm beech dowel was used as a basis, while for the king and counsellor the basic shape was turned. All decorations on the chess pieces were carved with a carving knife, while the dots and rounds were hammered in the wood with specific punches. The white set was finished with linseed oil, the black set with linseed oil mixed with a small amount of bone black. 

The 'basic' turned king and counsellor still attached to each other.

The chess pieces, in alternating colours: pawn, rook, knight, bishop/elephant, counsellor (ferz), king.

The game pieces have their specific moves, identical to medieval chess, but unlike the modern variant:

• The King moves one square in any direction.
• The Counsellor moves only one square diagonally.
• The Elephant/Bishop moves exactly 2 spaces diagonally. It can jump over other game pieces. This means it is not able to reach the inner ring; movement is restricted to only 8 places on the board.
• The Knight moves like the modern chess knight: two spaces forward/backward or sideways plus one space at a right angle (an L-shape). The knight jumps over other pieces.
• The Rook moves like the modern one: unlimited movement forward, backward or sideways until it has reached another piece. It cannot jump. In case of an empty circle, it is not allowed to travel a full circle, i.e. ending on its starting position.
• The Pawn moves one square forward when not capturing. Capturing occurs one step diagonally. Unlike modern chess, the pawn does not have the two-square step as the initial move.  Because of the circular nature of the board, the pawns cannot promote into another piece as there is no opposite side of the board.  When two pawns of the same colour, but of opposite direction meet and block each other's progression, the player of the opposite colour can remove both pieces. This action does not count as a turn.

Playing Byzantine chess

The board is set up with the king and counsellor placed in the smallest ring; both kings facing each other, as well as both counsellors. Next to the king/counsellor is the bishop/elephant, followed by the knight and the rook in last ring. On each side are 4 pawns.

Lay-out of the game pieces.

The players decide who goes first, and the players take turns moving one piece in each turn. If a player’s King is threatened with capture, 'check' is declared, and the player must move so that his King is no longer threatened. If there is no possible move to relieve the King of the threat, he is in 'checkmate' and the game is over. Even if the King is not in immediate threat, but any possible move would subject him to capture (stalemate), he has lost the game.

Also, if one side is reduced to a king alone with no other men, he loses as a 'bare king', unless he can reduce the other player to a bare king on the very next move, in which case the game is a draw. Finally, if it can be demonstrated that neither side has enough power on the board to force a win by checkmate, stalemate or bare king, the game is a draw.

The citadel variant

The set-up of the pieces in the citadel variant of Byzantine chess. 

The white king has to move to the opposite citadel (orange dot) to obtain a draw.

There is a variant attested in the 14th century where the set-up is different. Here, the King and the counsellor are on the outer ring, followed by the elephant/bishop, the knight and the rook in the smallest ring, i.e. the opposite of the normal situation. In addition, there are 4 citadels (husûn), in shape of quarter of circle, in the centre. One can obtain a draw if a player succeeds to bring his King in a citadel (it is supposed, though the rule is not explicitly stating, that it was meant the citadel opposed to his starting sector). Play further follows the rules as in normal Byzantine chess.

This post benefited greatly from the information on the Chess Variants web page and the History of Chess page.

The medieval toolchest: the awl and the gimlet

Awls or 'prickers' are small pricking or scratching tools used in woodworking, but also in leather working. An awl consists of a long pointed iron spike set into a wooden handle. The spike may be round or square. The awl is used to make (starting) holes (e.g. for drills or nails), or to scribe lines into wood. Awl spikes are usually round when used for scratching and square to pre-puncture easily split wood for nails. Awls have not been depicted in medieval miniatures for woodworkers, but plenty examples have been found, e.g. in Novgorod, Russia.

 An awl lies on the table of shoemaker Ott Norlinger (1476) from the Hausbuch of the 

Mendelschen Zwolfbruderstiftung (Neurenberg, Germany). Folio 96 recto.

  

Awls found in medieval Novgorod: a, e = 13th century, b = 11-13th century, c,d = 11th century, f, g, h = 14th century. Iron points are between 45-100 mm long. Irons are round, square or rhomboid in cross-section. Image scanned from the book 'Wood use in medieval Novgorod' edited by M. Brisbane and J. Hather. Oxbow publishers, 2007.

The gimlet or 'wimble' is like a small auger and similar in size as the awl. The point of a gimlet is twisted like a screw. They are used to make starting cuts for the spoon bits of the brace and larger augers into the wood. However, the cutting action of the gimlet is different from an auger as the cutting edges pare away the wood, which is moved out by the spiral sides. This also pulls the gimlet further into the hole as it is turned. Unlike the awl pressure is not required once the tip has been drawn in.

Several drilling tools. The most left are gimlets, those on the right augers. 

Miniature from around 1410. Donaueschingen, Library Cod. 860.

Ludwich Schwerdtfeger (1547) from the Hausbuch of the Laundauer Zwolfbruderstiftung (Neurenberg, Germany) is blacksmithing augers and gimlets. Three gimlets are shown on the right of the miniature. Folio 36 verso.

Gimlets found in medieval York: 2267 is an iron fragment with rounded squared shank. the blade has three twists and a pointed tip. Length 35 mm, width 6 mm, thickness 5 mm. Anglo-Saxon period. 8193 has an expanded lozenge-shaped tang for the handle, a square cross-sectioned shank and a blade with 5 twists and a pointed tip. Total length 171 mm, blade length 40, shank width 8 mm. Medieval period. Image scanned from 'Wood and wood-working in Anglo-Scandinavian and medieval York' by C.A. Morris.

The awl from our medieval toolchest is completely home made. For me, it has been the only attempt at blacksmithing. I used a gas-burner to heat the tip of the iron red-hot, and then hammered to it a point on an 'anvil', the head of a big square hammer. Then, I sharpened the square point  with a grindstone. Finally, the wooden handle, made of leftover stock of an unidentified piece of wood was added. We use the awl mostly as a scribing tool, and occasionally to punch holes in wood, leather or other material. The gimlet was bought with wooden handle at Deagrad tools.

The awl (top) and gimlet (bottom) from our toolchest.

I give you my heart with all my love….

I give you my heart with all my love….

How often will that have been said over the centuries. Very, very often probably. And is still said…. Sometimes the sentence may have been accompanied with a gift. And who wouldn’t fall for a suitor bringing a very nice and very precious gift?

In Sandra Hindman’s book (S. Hindman. 2007. Towards an art history of medieval rings. Paul Holberton Publishing, London, UK. ISBN 978-1903470640. Medieval (gold) rings from a private collection placed in perspective.) a very nice example is shown of a golden ring with a large heart-shaped ruby, lord of stones, with engravings of ivy and the text ‘CORTEPORTAMOR’ estimated to be just for the right period of our re-enactment group, the fourteenth century. Nowadays, I would probably laugh hard and find the ring very much over the top, but perhaps in older times I would just have been delighted. Well, actually no one ever gave me a present like that, so I will just have to make it myself!

The Gothic heart shaped 14th Century love ring in gold and ruby. 

With engravings of clinging ivy and text inscription. Height 23 mm, 

inner diameter 12.3 mm, outer diameter 18.7 mm, bezel 21.6 x 17.5 mm. 

Stone approx. 10.2x 10.8 x 7.7 mm.

The original ring is of course full of symbolism. Ruby is and was a very precious stone surrounded by myths of warding of danger, having the power of fire, removing evil thoughts and of influencing the decisions, mental and physical health of the person wearing it. The ivy expresses fidelity and eternity, as the evergreen crawls and creeps towards the sky, forming a union with whatever it clings to, becoming almost inseparable. And the text to make it even more plain in old Italian that the heart caries love… Someone really had to be convinced.

(Above) Text engraved on the Gothic Love Ring's hoop.

(Left) Engraving with ivy on the bezel of the Gothic Love Ring's hoop.

In Medieval times rubies were probably traded along the spice trading routes, arriving in Europe from India. Nowadays it proves to be difficult to find heart-shaped cabochon natural rubies of the size desired for the ring. Well, at least, I could not find affordable ones. In the end I resorted to buying a synthetic, opaque one – made in China - that as side bonus seems to come closer in appearance to the more pale pink colour of the original stone.

The ring itself is made from 1 mm thick silver plate material. I started sawing out the shape for the band and the heart in one strip very much like a loop shapes cigar band. Sizes. I neatly filed the ends of my band and soldered them together. Next I made the ring round on my ring mandrel. For the heart shaped stone I made the setting out of 0.5 mm silver plate. I drew the heart shape on a small paper and used to strips of approximately 5 mm to form to half shapes that soldered together exactly fell around my ruby.

 

Repeated annealing the hoop and bezel of my silver ring to be able to slowly mould it to its round shape.

On a half round file I now hollowed out the setting so that the bottom fitted nicely on my ring. I soldered the two pieces together. With a small file I made the top of the setting thinner to make it easier for the time I was going to fit the stone into the setting. Then I had to file and sand the whole thing thoroughly, before polishing it.

The heart shaped setting soldered to the rounded hoop and bezel. After this the heart shape was filed to its final shape and sanded.

The ring was polished except for the inside of the setting. 

The text and ivy has been written with a black marker on the hoop and bezel before engraving.

When it was nice and shiny I used a black marker to draw on the ivy vines and fit all the letters of the text on the ring itself. I am not a good engraver, but having the ring firm and stable in my ring clamp it worked out quite nicely. I lightly polished the ring again to get rid of any small scratches made. Then I placed the stone in its setting and slowly pushed, bit by bit, the setting round the stone. Bling bling, ready to show off!

The result shown from three different sides.

The CORTEPORTAMOR text on the replica.

A small movie to show the ring from all sides.

There are various other examples of heart-shaped rings and jewellery found in private collections and museums. Some examples are given below: A medieval 'A'-engraved heart-pendant of bronze (private collection), a medieval children's silver ring with gold-plated heart (private collection), an engraved gold ring with a heart shaped wolf's teeth (14th century, V&A museum, London, UK), and a heart shaped brooch engraved at the back with the text (14th century, V&A museum, London, UK).

Two pictures of a medieval small heart shaped children's ring in silver and gold (the heart) found on a terp - a man-made dwelling mound - in Friesland, the Netherlands. The ring is ornamented with diagonal ribs.

A medieval bronze pendant with a nice green patina, engraved with an A. Archaeological find, Germany.

Gold heart- shaped brooch with stylised leaves and flowers or feathers, made in France or England around 1400. The brooch would have been colourfully enamelled, both at the front and back. Engraved on the reverse in a dentillated border is the black-letter inscription 'NOSTRE ET TOUT DITZ A VOSTRE [D]ESEIR' (Ours and always at your desire), each word separated by a small floral sprig. Brooches often fastened garments with a slit at the neck; they were used both by men and women (V&A museum, item 86-1899, London, UK).

Decorated gold ring with wolf's tooth set in a heart-shaped bezel, made between 1200-1300 in France or England, inscription added around 1375-1425. Gems, but also other materials, such as teeth, were supposed to have magical properties. Inside the hoop are two engravings: a magic formula and a biblical phrase. The charm: ‘BURO + BERTO + BERNETO’ is to protect against toothache; the biblical phrase 'CONSUMMATUM + EST' are the last words Christ spoke on the Cross, and were used as a charm to calm storms. This large ring likely belonged to a man, possibly a merchant who travelled at sea (V&A museum, item 816-1902, London, UK).

Medieval tables in Kloster Lune and Kloster Medingen

The Luneburger kloster contain an enormous amount of medieval furniture: hundreds of chests, cupboards and armoires, but also some interesting medieval tables. These are not like the trestle type table as found in the Onze Lieve Vrouwe ter Potterie in Bruges, although there are some similarities.

The medieval tables in Kloster Lune

In the winter refectory  of the convent a 8.5 meter long oaken table is found. The table top is made from a single piece of wood with a thickness between 4 and 5 cm. The width of the table is around 50 cm, which makes the weight of the table top approximately 138 kg (half the weight of the trestle table of Bruges). It is believed that the table was also used as a working table for the embroiderers of the convent. The table has some unique features: beneath  the table top are small lockers. The 'open spaces' are places where once doors were fitted. The remaining holes of the hinges can still be seen, as well as a remaining door. I did not check if the lockers were on both sides of the table, but the placements of the 'open spaces' make this a likely option.

The large medieval table with the row of lockers beneath the table top. 

Image from the book 'Luneburger Einblicke' by C. George, A. Tamme and B. Ness.

The placement of the legs is irregular. Two are quite close to each other. This is exemplified by the number of the locker 'open spaces' between the table legs: 1, 3 and 4, respectively. The table legs are only connected to each other at the top by the locker row.

The winter refectory with the large medieval table. You can see that two of the table legs are close to each other. At the right end of the refectory another medieval or/renaissance table can be seen. Image scanned from a postcard.

The summer refectory painted in the original colours. Some medieval/renaissance tables are standing here. More of these tables are in the convent, all with a table top of a single piece of wood (but less thick). The legs are connected to each other with a beam, fastened by a pegged mortise. Image scanned from a postcard.

The medieval table from Kloster Medingen

Kloster Medingen is a bit curious convent. The current building has been built after a fire destroyed the medieval convent in 1781. Despite the destruction of the medieval building (except the brewery), it is full of medieval furniture. How did it survive the fire? No one knows. Perhaps St. Mauritius (the patron saint of the convent) miraculously intervened. The convent has a special medieval table which is located in one of the large hallways. Normally, it is not allowed to take photos in the convent, but after the guide had seen us taking so many notes on the pieces of furniture, we got the special permission to take photos of this very special table.

The medieval click-on table of Kloster Medingen.The middle leg is different: smaller and not fixed by a peg to the lower beam.

You can best describe the medieval table as a click-on table, where extra tables can be added 'seamlessly'. The table top is made such that at the end one half is extended, and the other not, while at the same time the upper half of the extended part is removed, and the lower part of the un-extended part. A next table top with the opposite configuration can 'click' into the first table top. This can continue until a large table is produced. Unfortunately this is the only table, and we can not see the 'click' in action. At the end of the table are also two square holes, and I think these were used for a piece of wood to fasten two tables together.

View of one side of the table. The X-leg is fastened by dowels to the table top. The two parts of the X are connected by two dowels and the mortise and pen of the lower beam. The 'click-on' version of of the table top is clearly visible here.

The rest of the table construction is typical of a so-called cloister-table with X-legs and a supporting rail fastened by mortise and pen. These X-type cloister tables remained popular even until the last century. In fact I am adjusting such a modern cloister table to a have more medieval look. One thing, however, is different: the central leg of the Medingen table is no X type and much smaller than the outside X-legs. The Medingen table was measured by counting the floor tiles. One floor tile equalled 1.5 times of my foot (= 48 cm). The table had a length of 5.5 tiles (~264 cm) by 2 tiles (~96 cm).

Scheme of connecting two medieval 'click-on' tables. 

Two of the blocks shown below could have been used to fasten the two tables.

 The other end of the table. You can see the two gaps left and right of the leg that likely 

were used to connect two tables. The 'click on' construction of the table top is reversed.

Two views of the underside of the table. You can see the top rail connected with a diagonal rail to the lower beam. The middle leg consists of one piece of wood and is much smaller than the outer X-legs.

 Once a single piece of wood, the table top is now split in two. My notebook is lying on the table top.