266 food, drink, and nutrition
a division of the empire established in the Oaths of
Strasburg of the previous year after the death of LOUISI
THE PIOUS. The victory of Charles and Louis over
Lothair led to the more or less permanent partition of
the empire by the Treaty of VERDUNin 843 between
Charles and Louis.
See alsoCAROLINGIAN FAMILY AND DYNASTY.
Further reading:Bernhard W. Scholz, trans., Carolin-
gian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s His-
tory(Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1972);
Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the
Carolingians, 751–987(London: Longman, 1983).
food, drink, and nutrition (trade and production
of foodstuffs) Our understanding of diet has been
changed by the interpretations of historians of diet as a
coherent cultural system. In the Middle Ages this system
had codes and a hierarchy of “alimentary values,” linked
partially to a hierarchy of social groups and more
concretely to the capabilities of production and exchange
or mechanisms of production in AGRICULTURE and
ANIMAL HUSBANDRY.
The medieval diet of the poorer members of the
population, although varied, was not particularly nutri-
tious or regular. Agricultural production was centered on
grain and cereals of every type, especially wheat or spelt.
The most common cereal was rye, because it was resis-
tant to disease and weather and easy to cultivate at all
latitudes. Other cultivated products were barley, oats,
and hops. The introduction of rice and buckwheat
occurred later.
Peasants and urban laborers ate black bread, made
of three parts of low-quality wheat and one of beans,Facade of the church for the Cistercian abbey of Fontenay, consecrated in 1147(Courtesy Edward English)