Le Ménagier De Paris (v. 1 & 2)
A husband's tender instruction to his young bride becomes one of the most vivid windows into medieval Parisian life. Written around 1393 by an anonymous well-to-do bourgeois, this manual blends practical wisdom with genuine affection: he teaches her how to manage servants, cultivate a garden, select horses, and hunt with hawks, but also implores her to guard her virtue and honor his name. The recipes scattered throughout are among the oldest recorded in French, offering instructions for spiced wines, elaborate meat dishes, and the particular way to roast a capon. Yet the book transcends mere housekeeping. It speaks to universal tensions of marriage, the weight of reputation, the management of wealth, and the question of what it means to be a good wife. Appended here are the fable of patient Griseldis, who endures impossible trials to prove her devotion, and Jean Bruyant's poem on poverty and richness, texts that 14th-century readers would have found as essential to a household library as any practical advice. This is not a dry treatise but a living artifact: a man trying to shape his legacy through the woman he loves, preserving his world against forgetting.
About Le Ménagier De Paris (v. 1 & 2)
Chapter Summaries
- Prologue
- The author explains his motivation for writing this treatise for his 15-year-old wife, outlining the three main sections covering moral instruction, household management, and recreational activities.
- First Distinction - Article I
- Instructions for beginning each day with prayer to God and the Virgin Mary, along with guidance on modest and appropriate dress for a married woman.
- First Distinction - Article II
- Guidance on choosing appropriate companions, maintaining modest behavior in public, and proper conduct during religious services.
Key Themes
- Wifely Obedience and Submission
- The central theme emphasizing complete obedience to one's husband as both religious duty and practical necessity, illustrated through extreme examples like Grisélidis.
- Domestic Management and Household Economy
- Detailed instruction in running a medieval household, from cooking and gardening to managing servants and maintaining proper hospitality.
- Chastity and Sexual Virtue
- The paramount importance of sexual purity and faithfulness, with examples of women who chose death over dishonor, reflecting medieval Christian values.
Characters
- The Anonymous Author(protagonist)
- An elderly Parisian bourgeois who married a young 15-year-old wife and writes this treatise to educate her in domestic and moral duties. He is learned, practical, and deeply concerned with his wife's future happiness after his death.
- The Young Wife(major)
- A 15-year-old orphaned girl from a better family than her husband, who requested gentle private correction rather than public rebuke. She is the primary audience for this instructional work.
- Grisélidis(major)
- The legendary patient wife from Petrarch's tale, daughter of poor Jehannicola who becomes Marquise of Saluces. She represents the ideal of wifely obedience and humility through extreme trials.
- Gautier (Marquis of Saluces)(major)
- The powerful marquis who marries the peasant Grisélidis and subjects her to increasingly cruel tests of obedience, including pretending to kill their children and divorce her.
- Susanna(major)
- The biblical heroine who chose death over adultery when threatened by corrupt judges, representing the virtue of chastity and faithfulness to one's husband.
- Lucretia(major)
- The Roman matron who killed herself after being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, preferring death to dishonor and becoming a symbol of virtue and chastity.
