Union Académique Internationale

Between the XIIth and XVIIth centuries, the recipe was probably one of the most usual ways to spread scientific and technical knowledge in Western Europe as in Islamic and Eastern countries. These recipes are common to such different knowledges as medicine and cookery, alchemy and magic, dyeing, metallurgy and cosmetics. A large number of recipe books are still preserved in libraries all around the world: for the only western medieval cookery, we can estimate the existing recipes at more than 15 000. One of the most important cultural centre of production was probably the court, as courts of Burgundy and Savoy and, of course, the papal court at Rome or Avignon. Writing the recipe includes the choice of an idiom – Latin or vernacular – which aims different audiences and receptions. The result of the recipes is a set of colors, smells, flavors and textures, which can be specific to a period, a civilization or an area. Studying the influences and exchanges between European and non-European recipes is therefore an essential point.