This is the fifth in a series of posts on the history of French bread. The preceding post was on late medieval bread. The next is on Renaissance/16h century bread.
Further information on bread history can be found on Facebook in the Bread History Lounge.- If you want to MAKE medieval bread, click here.
Further information on bread history can be found on Facebook in the Bread History Lounge.- If you want to MAKE medieval bread, click here.
By the late Middle Ages, Paris had attained the special status it still holds today as both the capital and the most economically important city in France. This is reflected in histories of French bread, which typically treat medieval Parisian bread as virtually synonymous with French bread. But numerous cities – and sometimes only towns – had their own bread history and some – though certainly not all – of this survives. It is found largely in municipal statutes, but also in agreements for banal mills (run by a local lord or monastery), for instance, and in other scattered records.
Some
preliminary concepts
A few terms are found through these documents, often with variants, which require some explanation.
Today, the French word for a bread-baker is boulanger; this may be derived (it is uncertain) from the fact that most bread for a long time was made in the shape of a ball (boule). But early records also refer to pestoures (from pistors, the original Latin word for baker), talemeliers (“sifters”) and fourniers (oven-tenders; literally, “oven-ners”) and these terms are sometimes treated as synonymous. In local records, however, a distinction is often made between a fournier and a baker. Often the fournier (the word has no real English equivalent) literally baked or cooked what was brought to the oven (which in at least one region could include meat and fish), either by private individuals or bakers. The baker, on the other hand, might sometimes only prepare the dough or sometimes, even where fourniers existed, do the baking.
The English word “flour” has its roots in a French term: fleur de farine. This very literally means “flower of flour”; perhaps less confusingly, “flower of meal”, or, the best (most finely sifted) flour – that is, flour that is mostly endosperm, rather than (the other two components) wheat germ and bran. In old French texts, the original term is regularly used to refer to the best flour. But in medieval texts one also finds pain de toute sa fleur (“bread of all its flower”). One might think that this meant bread from the best flour. But in fact it refers to bread made from flour which which still includes, as well as the “flower” of the wheat, most of the bran (and wheat germ); in practice, second quality flour. Similar terms exist in other local languages or dialect. A rare reference in one record to coarse bread sens flour (“without flower”) shows that a distinction was made between brown bread which, though it had a great deal of bran, still had the endosperm in it and that which was mainly bran.
Today, the French word for a bread-baker is boulanger; this may be derived (it is uncertain) from the fact that most bread for a long time was made in the shape of a ball (boule). But early records also refer to pestoures (from pistors, the original Latin word for baker), talemeliers (“sifters”) and fourniers (oven-tenders; literally, “oven-ners”) and these terms are sometimes treated as synonymous. In local records, however, a distinction is often made between a fournier and a baker. Often the fournier (the word has no real English equivalent) literally baked or cooked what was brought to the oven (which in at least one region could include meat and fish), either by private individuals or bakers. The baker, on the other hand, might sometimes only prepare the dough or sometimes, even where fourniers existed, do the baking.
The English word “flour” has its roots in a French term: fleur de farine. This very literally means “flower of flour”; perhaps less confusingly, “flower of meal”, or, the best (most finely sifted) flour – that is, flour that is mostly endosperm, rather than (the other two components) wheat germ and bran. In old French texts, the original term is regularly used to refer to the best flour. But in medieval texts one also finds pain de toute sa fleur (“bread of all its flower”). One might think that this meant bread from the best flour. But in fact it refers to bread made from flour which which still includes, as well as the “flower” of the wheat, most of the bran (and wheat germ); in practice, second quality flour. Similar terms exist in other local languages or dialect. A rare reference in one record to coarse bread sens flour (“without flower”) shows that a distinction was made between brown bread which, though it had a great deal of bran, still had the endosperm in it and that which was mainly bran.
While these terms are never defined in statutes, often the relation between different qualities of bread is clear from their varying weights; for the same price, the most finely sifted bread will be the lightest, the least, the heaviest. One or more intermediary qualities will have corresponding weights.
Note however that this does not quite align with the modern idea of “extraction rate”, which refers to the percentage of the original meal which remains after various processes (true whole wheat flour should have an extraction rate of 100%). The variable in a modern extraction rate is the amount of bran and wheat germ that remains in the flour. But the reference to flour “without flower” (without endosperm) suggests that, at least sometimes, the endosperm itself was actually removed (presumably to use for the better bread) so that the worst quality bread was what remained from sifting out the “flower of the meal” for the best breads.
In addition to the standard gradations of light and dark bread, two terms are found in many, but not all, localities. One is miche. Today this typically refers to the most common large loaf in a given region (in Paris this would be the round pain de campagne or similar breads). But in the past various indicators show that it referred to an especially fine quality of bread. The other, fouace, exists in numerous variants: fouasse, fogassa, etc. Like foccacia, the term derives from the Latin focacius, meaning bread cooked on the hearth (focus). The latter was originally cooked under embers and was unlikely to have been very fine. At some point, however, the term (which made its way back into Latin in its new form) came to mean a finer bread. In some cases, in fact, it may be synonymous with miche.
One might speculate too that the fouace was at some point still made under the embers, but using especially well-bolted flour. As a practical matter, the reason for the shift in meaning is unknown.
Only some town statutes mention such superior forms of white bread. However, their absence does not mean these were not made locally. Bear in mind that monasteries and many estates had their own bakeries and in some cases the very best bread was made directly for those who would consume it.
Most French towns maintained the system found early on in Paris whereby the price remained constant for each type of loaf, but its weight varied with the price of grain. This may have been practical, even necessary, in a time when coinage was still relatively limited; the average consumer may not have walked around carrying the kind of small change required to adjust for incremental changes in price. For one thing, some people (including bakers themselves) were often paid in... bread (as when bakers or fourniers received one out of a certain number of loaves they had baked).
Whatever the case, wherever a specific weight is listed below for a bread, bear in mind that it typically would correspond to a particular price per setier or bushel of grain, and would vary as the latter changed.
And now, the BOOK:
Before the Baguette: The History of French Bread
Also available as an epub : Smashwords ebpub version
Preview on Amazon's "Look Inside"
or take a peek at the Table of Contents here:
The
earliest statutes
The first known statutes specifically addressing bread and bakers in France come not from Paris, but from nearby Pontoise. In 1162, Louis VII declared that only “legitimate bakers” could make “either white or dark bread” in the town to sell:
Notum facimus universis presentibus et futuris nos concessisse bolengariis Pontisare quod nullus in villa faciat panem ad vendendum, nec molendinarius, nec fullo, nisi talis homo qui sit legitimus bolengarius et qui propria manu sciat facere panem et album et bisum.
We make it known to all now and in the future that we have granted to the bread bakers of Pontoise that none in the city make bread to sell, nor miller, nor fuller, but such man who be a legitimate baker and who with his own hands knows how to make bread both white and dark.
(Luchaire)
NOTE: It is strange that fullers – textile workers – would have made bread; could this be a mistranscription of a word meaning fournier? Such errors are not unknown. On the other hand, a later statute (see below) from Abbeville specifically forbids drapers from making bread, so there may have been an early link between textiles and making breads.
This is the first record of something which only incrementally became true for most of France, which was that commercial bread could only be made by professional bakers. It is probably the first mention as well of white and dark bread being the two main types.
It is also worthy of note that the Latin text uses the word bolengarius, corresponding to the French boulanger, and not pistor (the old Latin word) or any of the other terms used for a baker before boulanger became the standard one. Around 1174, Henry II (then King of England, but also Duke of Normandy) used the plural bolengariis in granting certain rights to the citizens of Rouen (Chéruel). Yet when Boileau established the first Parisian statutes for bakers in 1268, he still used the word tamelier.
It is also worthy of note that the Latin text uses the word bolengarius, corresponding to the French boulanger, and not pistor (the old Latin word) or any of the other terms used for a baker before boulanger became the standard one. Around 1174, Henry II (then King of England, but also Duke of Normandy) used the plural bolengariis in granting certain rights to the citizens of Rouen (Chéruel). Yet when Boileau established the first Parisian statutes for bakers in 1268, he still used the word tamelier.
Types
of regional bread
In
a number of local statutes, the same three grades of bread are
mentioned as in Paris: the finest quality bread, an average quality
bread and a poor quality bread. Some even refer to “the three
types of bread”, as if assuming that these were known. The terms
used however vary and it may be too that the actual breads at each
level did as well. As noted above, sometimes a fourth, superior, form
of white bread was mentioned. Conversely, in very poor regions, only
two or even one quality of bread might be specified. The main grain
used was always wheat; it is more unusual to see rye or barley
officially mentioned, but where either are, the region in question
probably had a larger proportion of workers, peasants or otherwise
disadvantaged consumers. It was exceptional at this point for bread
to be salted, so such mentions stand out. Proximity to the ocean was
probably one determining factor in this regard.
In
Bordeaux, a number of different statutes exist from different
periods. In all, the standard white bread is called choyne.
The second quality is typically called amassa, though it
sometime is called bread “with all its bran” (ab tot son cot).
The third is called bassalon or barsalor (probably a
variant of bassalon). The statute from 1336 (the oldest) also
lists fogassa; that is, a white bread even whiter than the
standard white bread. This is clear from the respective weights:
fogassa, twelve ounces; choyne, fourteen; amassa, sixteen; barsalor, eighteen. In 1407,
the weights were: choyne, sixteen; bread with all its bran, twenty-one; bassalon,
twenty-four. In 1421, these were: choyne, ten; massa, thirteen; bassalon, seventeen.
The
term for the best flour was flor deu froment (“flower of
wheat”). Mouthon, who has studied Bordeaux's bread in depth, says,
"this yielded a very white crumb covered with a fine crust",
but does not explain why this would be the case. Bread made at home
was called pan d'hostau; that is, household bread, or, as the
Parisians put it, pain de ménage (which in Paris became a
commercial variety of bread). It was bigger than standard baker's
bread; Mouthon says a fournier got ten 1.7 kilo loaves from about twenty-seven liters of bread.
All
this bread was of wheat and, unlike much bread in medieval France,
salted.
In
neighboring areas, the picture varied a little. In La Réole, in
1255, the breads were fouace, white bread, “bolted” (balutat)
bread and brown bread (pain co or “bran bread”), which
(curiously) could be both bolted and not. In Langon in 1494, only
white or brown bread was sold.
In
Rouen, three qualities of bread were made; but the best could
take various forms. A 1491 statute for Rouen orders that bakers make
"good white bread, like mollet, fouache, pain
de rouelle, somineaux, cernuyaus, craquelins,
cretelées or other type of good bread of good
wheat". Several of these, such as the craquelins, were
more typically considered as pastries. The next article then states
that bakers will make three kinds of bread: "white bread of the
types declared above", biset ("darkish") bread
and fettis (the darkest) bread (fettis seems to be the
same word as the Parisian faitis). This raises the question of
whether specifications for white bread in other cities simply
referred to the traditional ball-shaped bread made with the best
flour, or if these also implied various luxury items that simply were
not specified.
In
Normandy, salt was rarely used in bread. But in Lillebonne and
Bolbec (between Le Havre and Rouen), the three types of bread were
white bread, dark bread and salted bread. The chef d'oeuvre
(the 'masterpiece' made by an aspirant to a mastery) consisted of
salted white bread and dark bread. Some bakers only made faitis
(the lowest quality of bread). A writer in 1933 said that the bolted
bread in this period was finer than in his own.
In
fourteenth century Grenoble, according to one (secondary)
source, bakers sold four qualities of bread: white “mouth bread”
(panis de bochâ; that is, pain de bouche) or
miche, brown bread called jacobin; “reddish” bread (pain
rosset), and dark bread (pain bis). Another however says
that only pain de bouche and rosset were originally
sold and that the other two came later.
While
no explanation is given for the term jacobin, a Jacobin
convent was founded in Bordeaux in 1230 and it may be that similar
bread was made there (though typically monks ate finer bread).
In
Nantes in 1353, both choayme and mollet bread –
the two finest – were to weigh 16 ounces when the setier was at
twenty sous. The next quality was called pain de griste, with
the "third of the flower", to weigh twenty two ounces; then
coarse bread, “without flower”, to weigh twenty seven and three quarter ounces. After this, fouaces are listed, weighing
eighteen ounces – that is, they were of slightly lesser quality in
this case than the two best white breads.
These
statutes are some of the few too to set standards for rye bread. When
the setier of rye was at ten sous, a ten denier bread was to weight
forty-five ounces (obviously a big loaf).
They
also allow for people who brought their unbaked dough (of rye or of
wheat) to the fourniers. Some even brought to the fourniers "their
flours, wheat as well as rye, still to turn, bolt, set to rise,
knead, slice, weigh and put in the oven"; basically, to make the
bread. Note that the fourniers did this even though there were bakers
(pestours) in the region; the statutes overall are addressed,
not only to bakers, but to anyone who made “sellable bread”.
In Angoulême in 1372, a bushel of wheat was to yield thirty one denier breads “with all their flower”, each weighing seventeen ounces. The miche weighed twelve ounces (and so was effectively the finest quality bread). Dark bread weighed twenty five ounces. This is close to the weight – twenty four ounces – given for something called (exceptionally) a reparon, which was to weigh a third more than bread with all its flour. The word (which suggests “repair”) may indicate that it was made with flour left over from sifting one of the better qualities.
The same statute gives (unusually) similar figures for barley bread, which was to weigh half again as much as wheat bread with all its “flower”.
In Angoulême in 1372, a bushel of wheat was to yield thirty one denier breads “with all their flower”, each weighing seventeen ounces. The miche weighed twelve ounces (and so was effectively the finest quality bread). Dark bread weighed twenty five ounces. This is close to the weight – twenty four ounces – given for something called (exceptionally) a reparon, which was to weigh a third more than bread with all its flour. The word (which suggests “repair”) may indicate that it was made with flour left over from sifting one of the better qualities.
The same statute gives (unusually) similar figures for barley bread, which was to weigh half again as much as wheat bread with all its “flower”.
In 1257, the three types of bread in Marseilles were white bread, average or medium bread (panis mediano or pain mejan, an expression still used in 1917) and bread with everything (that is, bran, etc – pane cum toto).
In Perpignan two different documents give an idea of the bread produced around the late thirteenth century. In 1257 the bakers signed an agreement with the Templars, whose oven they were using. This agreement mentions white bread, fluxello bread, and "red" bread. The term fluxello appears elsewhere as flixol or fluxell which (like mollet) implies "soft", and so this bread was probably of a fine quality. The pane rosso would have been a dark bread, and the lowest quality.
The town statutes probably date from 1276 and address, not the bakers, but the forners. They were obliged to bake a range of products, including bread, which is referred to only as bread, for both individuals and bakers. But it included at least a tortell (tourte) of the best bread (fluxol).
The
oven tenders also baked (or cooked) fish, meat and flans, as well
panatas, cassoles and formagades. Today, a
panade is basically a bread soup. Formagade occurs in
several variants; today a formatjades is a fried pastry filled
with cheese. A cassole is the dish used to make a cassoulet
and probably gave its name to that dish; it may have meant something
like a cassoulet at the time. But for the period the only thing clear
about all these references is that a variety of dishes were brought
to the forners to bake or cook.
A
1269 agreement for a banal oven at Millas (near Perpignan) also
mentions not only baking bread but cooking formatjades and
panades. A similar agreement from 1246 for Palau (probably
Palau-de-Vidre, also near Perpignan) mentions no specific breads but
is very unusual in saying that the bread could be of "barley and
wheat and whatever other grain".
In
Poitiers towards the fifteenth century, the miche could be
salted (weighing one and a half ounces for a denier) or unsalted
(weighing eight ounces for four deniers; that is, at two ounces a
denier, slightly more than the salted). Bread with all its flower
weighed ten ounces for four deniers. A large wheat bread was made
for households, weighing twelve and a half pounds for three sols four
deniers, six pounds four ounces for twenty deniers and three pounds
two ounces for ten deniers. Maslin bread (of wheat and rye) is also
mentioned, weighing more for the same prices.
In
Limoges in 1400 prices were given for wheat and rye bread. But
the prices for wheat were only for different weights (five marcs [two
and a half pounds] and six ounces for four deniers, two marcs and seven
ounces for two deniers and one marc three and a half ounces for one denier).
The statute also specified that this was to be without mixing in
broad beans or anything else; such a stipulation is rare at this
point.
Rye
bread was made in tourtes, eight to a setier. A big tourte was to
weigh thirteen and a half pounds, each, the small ones four marcs
(that is, two pounds).
In
Heyrieux (near Lyon) in 1389, fourniers made large breads (in
grosso), of wheat or rye, meant (says a note) to last for days;
the bakers baked smaller breads (in minuto).
Sometimes
only two qualities of bread were made. Rents for Saint-Pere de
Chartres included one very white (candidum) and one
dark bread (vasselerium; that is, for vassals, and so most
likely made with rye or barley). In Compiegne (in the Oise),
in 1261, a priest was guaranteed both the finer bread of the
monks (panis conventualibus) which was said to be commonly
called miche, and common (familiaribus) bread.
Very
rarely, only one quality of bread might be made. In a charter (from
between 1180 and 1223) for the Picard town of Roye, bakers
were forbidden to make anything but bread of 1 obole (a very low
price). At the end of the fourteenth century only one type of bread
was made in Montivilliers (in Upper Normandy) and an
associated town, Harfleur: “coarse dense poorly baked, heavy and
little risen” because most residents were poor tradespeople and
laborers. The people of Harfleur objected to this limit and sought to
make other types of bread.
Some
other more specialized types of bread are sometimes mentioned as
well.
In
the twelfth century the abbey of Saint-Père of Chartres agreed with
the parish priest of Chanday that they would equally share Ascension
bread, and the “usual” Christmas, Easter and Ascension breads.
Charters also mention Pentecost, Purification, Epiphany, and
Saint-Etienne breads, all given by the faithful. These breads were
also called tortelli. Christmas bread – panis
natalitius – was a seniorial privilege, given by vassals.
In
Falaise in 1312 bakers had to make tourteaux-Dieu for Saturday
and blessed bread (pain béni) for Sunday. A tourteau
was typically a large round loaf; it probably was of the best quality
to be presented as a “God-tourteau”.
In
1412, the prison of Troyes and Saint-Lys gave prisoners rye bread
called tranchours – that is, trenchers, a bread which
typically was not eaten but used like a plate. This seems to be a
rare example of this use of the term.
In
1286 in Saint-Maries-de-la-Mer, people could also have filled rolls
and pastries (placenta) made, to be sold at 1 denier each.
In
Dijon in the fourteenth century, gaudiers made gaude,
then a special flour used to make "gauderie bread".
The term gaude was later used for a kind of corn meal, so this
may have been a millet flour (corn for a while was known as gros
millet or "big millet").
A
number of other details appear in these records, some of more
importance than others. Since the records overall are spotty, it is
often impossible to know if similar situations to those referenced
existed in other regions or not.
In
later centuries, women would largely be excluded from trades, unless
they were widows of tradesmen. But some records on baking suggest
that this was less true as trades first became established at the end
of the Middle Ages. In
Montpelier in the fourteenth century, a number of apprenticeship contracts were
for
women, who
also worked as bakers and pastry makers. From the thirteenth to the
fifteenth century, a number of women in Bordeaux worked both as
bakers and as fournières.
In
Marseilles
in 1257,
people could sell bread without being professional bakers (which was
already becoming unusual in other cities). Unbaked dough was sold as
well as bread.
An
1199 regulation for
Rouen stipulates
that “no
baker
can have more than two windows for selling his bread, one in his
house, one in the entry of [the church].” This
reflects a situation found elsewhere, where bakers sold bread both at
their own shops and in a market or another communal location. Note
too that shops were said to sell from their “windows”, typically
an opening onto the street, not a glass element.
In
some regions, it was standard for either bakers or fourniers to pick
up dough and return the baked bread to the customer. In Montolieu in
1392, the bakers at the royal ovens did this. In Picardy, in 1312,
the Lord d'Anguerrans of Durcat held certain tenants responsible for
the maintenance and constructions of buildings for his ovens, but at
Christmas he was obliged to carry their dough to the ovens and bread
back to their homes, for which help each owed a loaf, in addition to
the thirtieth loaf from each batch.
On
the other hand in 1391, Charles VI specifically said that porters
were not customary at the oven in the town of Voisines (In Furnis
Vicinarum non erunt portatores consuetudine).
In
the town of Saint-Maries-de-la-Mer, porters were supposed to pick up
the shaped dough and deliver the bread, but did not, obliging women
to come to the two working ovens in the town. Further, the ovens were
not fired when they should have been, obliging the women to wait
around. In 1356, the third oven, in disrepair, was considered
dangerous for the public. Two years later, an accident there hurt
some women, killed others and caused one or more to miscarry.
This
was not the only abuse there. The women also had to bring their own
wood and to tip the fournier (both contrary to the statutes). The
prior managing these ovens got one out of every twenty-two loaves for
the baking and the (theoretical) pick-up and delivery.
Some
other mentions are more idiosyncratic.
In
fourteenth
century Abbeville (in Picardy), bakers
could not also be drapers. Also, bread could not be sold where wine,
beer or godale was sold (a situation which probably did not endure,
since taverns increasingly sold food in most regions).
In
1264. the Collegiate Church of Saint-Urbain in Troyes was granted the
right to a tithe from Romilly. Ultimately however it surrendered this
particular right, because the chapter was obliged to distribute
Easter bread to the peasants of Romilly. But everyone in the area
would show up and claim to be one, which resulted in numerous
lawsuits. On February 5, 1372 a judgement was handed down declaring
that the chapter would only give to true peasants of Romilly,
“communing” men, women and children. The bread was to be “of
such a size that a setier of wheat would give thirty loaves.”
In
fifteenth century Cotentin, bread was made for poultry. It was not
unusual to make bread for dogs – barley bread was a common dog food
– but this mention of bread for poultry is unusual.
In
Provins in 1364
bakers
had the
right
to let pigs out twice a day “to piss” without being fined (in
modern terms: the bakers had the right to walk their pigs twice a
day).
Tavern keeps had to send people to bakers to buy bread “depending
on the number of drinkers they had in their tavern”.
Summary
This
overview of various regional
texts
on late medieval bread shows similar general tendencies with specific
variations. Clearly, the most common model was to define a scale of
diminishing
quality
from light to dark bread. But this left room for a number of
variations, both in terminology and in substance. The fact that
especially fine white breads were or were not offered in commerce or
that rye or barley bread was or was not officially mentioned is at
least suggestive of corresponding variations in the affluence or
poverty of each area. Too, various idiosyncrasies in local statutes
or agreements show the uncertain state this trade was in at the end
of the Middle Ages. Sometimes anyone could sell bread; sometimes only
selected professionals could. Sometimes dough was picked up and
delivered as baked bread, sometimes not. The pricing model of varying
the weight of the bread rather than its price endured for a long time
outside Paris, which in turn may hint at how coinage was used in the
period. Pastries
(that is, luxurious baked goods, as opposed to the pastry shells
originally denoted by that term) were still confounded with bread in
this period.
Slim evidence suggests that women played a greater professional role
before the hardening of corporate structures increasingly excluded
them.
Overall
then, these records show commercial bread-baking in its infancy in
France, still, in many regards, feeling its way towards what would
become a more structured and rigorously regulated trade.
FOR
FURTHER READING
Mouthon, F., Le pain en Bordelais médiéval, XlIIe - XVIe s 1997
Malvezin, Théophile, Histoire du commerce de Bordeaux V1-2 1892
Archives municipales de Bordeaux: Registres de La Jurade, 1406-1409 1873
Archives municipales de Bordeaux: Registres de La Jurade, v4 1414-1416 1420-1422 1883
Desportes, F., “Le pain en Normandie à la fin du Moyen Âge”, Annales de Normandie 1981
Pied, Edouard. Les anciens corps d'arts et métiers de Nantes, V1 1903
Vigier de la Pile, François, Jean Hippolyte Michon, François de Corlieu, Gabriel de la Charlonye, Histoire de l'Angoumois 1846
Société
archéologique de Montpellier, Les Costunes de Perpignan
1848
Amargier, P.-A., “I. Questions d'hygiène alimentaire et de panification auxSaintes-Maries-de-la-Mer en 1286”, Annales du Midi V 81 1969
Béghin. Cécile.
“Entre ombre et lumière : quelques aspects du travail des femmes à Montpellier (1293-1408)” Médiévales V15 1996
Société des antiquaires de Picardie, Bulletins de la Société des antiquaires de Picardie 1882
Dupont-Ferrier, Gustave, “Quelques denrées alimentaires et leur taxation dans le Cotentin, de Charles VI à Louis XI”, Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres V85 1941
de Laurière, Eusèbe, France, Bréquigny, Ordonnances des Rois de France de la 3e Race, recueillies par ordre … v4 1734
