Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Wednesday, 27 April 2022

The cuisine of Al Andalus


I came upon an article on Atlas Obscura which was published last year about one of the earliest cookery books, which dates from the mid-thirteenth century, and which celebrates the Muslim cuisine of Al Andalus. 

The story is both that of the recovery of the complete text, which had hitherto been lacking a section but which was then rediscovered, and also that of the recipes and diet of Muslim Spain. It is also the story of the problems faced by both Muslims and Jews in respect of their dietary laws when they fell under Christian rule in the high and later middle ages and in the sixteenth century.



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