unavailable, and wine elsewhere. In neither case was the alcoholic content high; proper
storage was difficult and expensive, and the product was retailed as soon as it was
drinkable. A good number of popular “recipes” were compiled during the period on ways
to cure spoilage in stored wines. Two varieties of beer were recognized: a better grade,
from barley or spelt, and a small beer, from wheat and rye, oats, vetch, and virtually any
other grain. Just as today, the reputation of wines depended upon their geographical
source. The Burgundian vineyards produced the most valued, but imported wines, from
Greece, Cyprus, or Palestine, had a certain vogue.
Cider and mead (hydromel, from a fermented mixture of honey and water, particularly
in its flavored forms as medon and bergerasse) enjoyed local appeal in northern France.
Certain special wines were customarily served as aperi-tifs, cordials, and digestives at
formal meals. For instance, grenache was commonly used to “open the stomach” in such
meals. Medical faith in the power of spices, both to promote digestion and to ensure a
healthy balance of corporal humors, led to the elaboration of fortified wines, such as
hypocras (in which name the authority of Hippocrates is apparent) and claret. Flavoring
was also provided wines by wormwood (absinthe), aloes, hyssop, myrtle, anise,
rosemary, cubebs, sage, and musk.
A number of other beverages derived as well from the realm of medicine, often by
way of their use as ingredients in special cookery. Natural fruit juices, poiré and prunellé,
for example, and in particular citric juices because of their bitterness, were so used from
the end of the 14th century. Finely ground flower petals lent a scent and flavor to water.
Normally available for finger washing during a meal, an infusion of rose petals (eaue
rose) enjoyed extensive use particularly in its distilled form, first as a medically
prescribed therapeutic beverage, then as a beverage consumed for the maintenance of
good health, and finally as a culinary ingredient. The techniques of the still, or alembic,
provided the medieval physician with aqua vitae from various wines; but thirsty people
soon realized that what was beneficial for the sick could be equally salutary for anyone.
Terence Scully
[See also: BANQUETING; COOKING; MEALS]
Gottschalk, Alfred. Histoire de l’alimentation et de la gastronomie depuis la préhistoire jusqu’à
nos jours. 2 vols. Paris: Hippocrate, 1948, Vol. 1, pp. 257–352.
Glixelli, S. “Les contenances de table.” Romania 47(1921):1–40.
BÉZIERS
. Occupying a fortified site on hills overlooking the Orb River, Béziers (Hérault) was an
important center of commerce and administration in medieval France. Under the
Carolingians, Béziers became the seat of a county, and then (ca. 880) a viscounty under
the counts of Toulouse. A series of marriages brought Béziers into the assemblage of
territories controlled by the Trencavel family in 1066.
The authority of the viscounts remained paramount in the city until the 12th century.
Their subsequent difficulties and conflicts with the counts of Toulouse and Barcelona
allowed the power of the bishop and commune to emerge. By the end of the 12th century,
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 228