1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910459937703321

Autore

Jotischky Andrew <1965->

Titolo

A hermit's cookbook : monks, food and fasting in the Middle Ages / / Andrew Jotischky

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London, [England] ; ; New York, New York : , : Continuum, , 2011

©2011

ISBN

1-283-12282-0

9786613122827

1-4411-5991-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (224 p.)

Disciplina

641.59409

Soggetti

Monastic and religious life - History - Middle Ages, 600-1500

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Contents; List of illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1 Beginnings - who were the first monks?; 2 Desert fathers, pillar-saints and fasting; 3 The 'hermit craze' of the Middle Ages; 4 Herbs and health; 5 From field to table - the medieval monastic experience; 6 Medieval diets - the food landscape; 7 Conclusion; Notes; Further Reading; Index

Sommario/riassunto

The Egyptian hermit Onuphrios was said to have lived entirely on dates, and perhaps the most famous of all hermits, John the Baptist, on locusts and wild honey. Was it really possible to sustain life on so little food? The history of monasticism is defined by the fierce and passionate abandonment of the ordinary comforts of life, the most striking being food and drink. A Hermit's Cookbook opens with stories and pen-portraits of the Desert Fathers of early Christianity and their followers who were ascetic solitaries, hermits and pillar-dwellers. It proceeds to explore how the ideals of the dese