Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy by Phyllis Pray BoberReview by: Corrie NormanThe Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer, 2001), pp. 596-597Published by: The Sixteenth Century JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2671835 .

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596 Sixteenth CenturyJournal XXXII/2 (2001)

Problems remain, however. Shaping History is, as noted, a rereading of familiar historical events. Drawing his political narratives largely from this secondary literatureTe Brake intro- duces no new archival information. Thus, his readers have little alternative but to accept or reject his reinterpretation without further documentation. This poses a considerable prob- lem when one attempts to identify his "ordinary people." Despite his reservations about the "Aristotelian triad of monarchy/aristocracy/democracy,"Te Brake adopts without comment the standard cast of early modern political agents-territorial rulers, local rulers, and com- mon folk-and admits that these parties participated in shifting alliances with and against one another according to their perceptions of circumstances and objectives.Yet, in my opin- ion, he does not account adequately for the fact, well established in the literature, that the common folk often drew their leaders from among local elites or that they often sided with territorial princes against their local rulers.Who, then, were these ordinary people? Likewise problematical is the identification of political interests. Ordinary people not only drew their leadership from beyond their own ranks, but also disagreed among themselves about their political agendas. How, then, can we speak generally of ordinary people? The formulaic con- clusion-that local sovereignties emerged, when composite states were eliminated; that national states coalesced, when princes subordinated cities and territories; and that compos- ite states endured, when dynastic princes failed-does justice, in my opinion, neither to the complexity of the process nor to the multiplicity of the outcomes.

Such discontents speak to the complexities of the issue rather than the intrinsic weak- nesses of this book. Shaping History seeks to be "illustrative rather than comprehensive." There was, as Te Brake rightly observes, no "single, normative path of European political development." His reminder that composite states provided the context and set the parame- ters for most political development in early modern Europe should serve as a timely pallia- tive for the excesses of grand narrative. He is to be congratulated for an interesting and accessible synthesis. Thomas Max Safley ............... University of Pennsylvania

Art, Culture, and Cuisine: Ancient and Medieval Gastronomy. Phyllis Pray Bober. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 442 pp. $50.00. ISBN 0226062538. Bober sets out to describe what she argues is an "essential community of expression" in

the arts, including the arts of cooking and eating. In "periods of high activity" of artistic and architectural development from ancient Egypt through late medieval Europe, she finds com- plementary aesthetics in culinary developments. By drawing the comparison between the fine and culinary arts, she underlines the role of cuisine as a means of cultural expression through human history.

She uses an eclectic variety of sources and methodologies. Thus economic factors, anthropological analysis, political history, and geography come and go depending on what the author finds appropriate to specific contexts.Attention to religious and "medical" ideas, while sometimes on a superficial level no doubt necessitated by the sweep of volume, is more pervasive. It is her extensive knowledge of art and food histories, however, that provide the foundation of the volume.

Bober does not attempt to write a straight culinary history, but the volume serves that purpose as well or better than anything else in English to date. Her focus on cultural expres- sion also ensures that the story of food is not divorced from peoples and contexts. She consis- tently tries to attend to the range of any culture she discusses, although the paucity of evidence often leaves her with little choice but to focus on the feasting and tastes of the privileged.

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Book Reviews 597

Lack of evidence is the biggest problem in arguing for the "unitary message of art" theory. At times, she bases her arguments about cuisine on the theory rather than the evi- dence about cuisine. For example, she determines that Egyptian and Mesopotamian cui- sines, for which we have no recipes, "must have" been consistent with the artistic and architectural sensibilities of their respective cultures. Thus ancient Egyptian food must have been rather straightforward fare without elaborate saucing or mixing because it belonged to "a culture so attuned to the individual and specific." Mesopotamian cuisine, on the other hand, "must have celebrated abundance by a piling up of many small units, a balanced con- struction of diverse, even conflicting tastes and textures" as archeological evidence shows in its architecture.

When she does have evidence from culinary sources, she is on more solid ground and indeed, argues her theory quite plausibly. The chapters on classical cultures are the strongest in the volume. Her thorough knowledge of the classical world and creative reading of clas- sical culinary sources make for a fine discussion and delightful reading.

Her comparison of classical sculptural principles to dietary principles, of developments in art with the "fusion cuisine" made possible by Alexander's conquests, and her discussion of the Roman still life in the context of agronomy are highlights.

Bober makes her case that culinary trends in the Middle Ages like artistic trends reflect the paradox of "worldliness and asceticism" in Christendom, but has little room to deal with the complexities of paradox. Her argument that the elaborate court cuisine of late medieval Europe "bears comparison with the intricacies of late gothic architecture, polyphony, and scholasticism," is intriguing but involves such vast territory that it merits a volume to itself. The chapters on the Middle Ages do provide a sound introduction to the most important trends in medieval cuisine based on current scholarship.

Indeed, while Bober aims for the general audience with her amiable, conversational style and clear explanations, scholars will find much food for thought (pardon.') in this vol- ume and a very useful scholarly apparatus in the ample notes. The text ends rather abruptly, moving into a series of menus for historical meals complete with recipes.While the book is accessible to a general audience, these meals are definitely for the adventurous.

Bober is currently at work on a second volume, covering the Renaissance through the modern age, to which we shall look forward. In the meantime, early modernists looking to brush up on the culinary background to their period should find Bober's work an entertain- ing as well as informative vehicle. Corrie Norman.. . ................... Converse College

Convents and the Body Politic in Late RenaissanceVenice.Jutta Gisela Sperling. Women in Culture and Society Series. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. xvii + 417 pp. $70.00. ISBN 0226769356. Why didVenice's ruling patriciate wither away over the sixteenth and seventeenth cen-

turies? Because of its foolhardy efforts to keep itself small, rich, and isolated, goes the stan- dard argument. High dowries and strict endogamy led to low rates of official marriage, which in turn led to a decline in the size of the patriciate as its sons and daughters failed to reproduce. One unfortunate side effect of this system, the story goes, was the astonishingly high rate at whichVenetian cadets joined the church, particularly women. One victim of this system, Arcangela Tarabotti, gave voice to the "forced" nuns in her bitter indictment ofVen- ice's fathers and governors, "The Nun's Inferno" (L'inferno monacale, 1640s). Tarabotti, like many later historians, blamed her fate on the heartless selfishness of her father, who favored

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