Madeleine Pelner Cosman (1937–2006)
Author of Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery and Ceremony
About the Author
Madeleine Pelner Cosman is an author, attorney, & lecturer whose areas of expertise include medical law & medieval life. President of Medical Equity, Inc., her fourteen published books include "Medieval Wordbook" (Facts on File/Checkmark Books) & "Fabulous Feasts: Medieval Cookery & Ceremony", show more nominated for the Pulitzer Prize & the National Book Award. She lives in San Diego, CA. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: from Lifeinlegacy.com
Works by Madeleine Pelner Cosman
Associated Works
A Medieval Woman's Mirror of Honor: The Treasury of the City of Ladies (1989) — Editor, some editions — 104 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Cosman, Madeleine Pelner
- Other names
- Pelner, Madeleine (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1937-12-04
- Date of death
- 2006-03-02
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Yeshiva University (JD - Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law)
Columbia University (PhD - English and Comparative Literature)
City University of New York (MA - Hunter College)
Barnard College (BA) - Occupations
- non-fiction author
scholar
lecturer - Organizations
- Institute for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
California Rifle and Pistol Association
Wake Up America Foundation
City University of New York (City College) - Short biography
- Cosman has also been accused of making racist claims in her criticism of immigration. For example, railing against Mexican immigrant men, she made the following ominous warning: "Recognize that most of these bastards molest girls under age twelve, some as young as age five, others age three. Although, of course, some specialize in boys, some specialize in nuns, some are exceedingly versatile and rape little girls age eleven and women up to age seventy-nine." She goes on to attribute the behavior to allegedly lenient Mexican laws concerning rape. [from Wikipedia]
- Cause of death
- scleroderma (complications)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Tenafly, New Jersey, USA
- Place of death
- Escondido, California, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
One of those wonderful books that reminds you that everything you know is wrong. Cosman, a physician, began her writing career exploring the lives of woman physicians in the middle ages for the Met. She's gone on to expand her interest in the work of all medieval woman, and this readable book is a treat. Webster, Brewster, Lavender -- all woman's career matronymics. This tidbit is just one of the great bits of information in a book full of the long forgotten and overwritten value of women's show more work.
Divided by type of work, we learn about the famous and the infamous. Women were thieves and murderers (and paid the same price as men) as well as scribes and doctors, guildmembers and merchants. Drawing from reliable sources such a legal documents, guildhall records, estate books she recreates a vibrate world where men AND women participated more equally than we've imagined. She also visits how this was forgotten. Overwritten and "corrected" by a wealth of Victorian male scholarship who turned women doctors in male doctors and midwives, who removed womens' guilds from the historical record, and generally rewrote history to suit their sense of what was appropriate. This book left me feeling very happy, and with a very different view of medieval Europe than the one I'd been brought up with. show less
Divided by type of work, we learn about the famous and the infamous. Women were thieves and murderers (and paid the same price as men) as well as scribes and doctors, guildmembers and merchants. Drawing from reliable sources such a legal documents, guildhall records, estate books she recreates a vibrate world where men AND women participated more equally than we've imagined. She also visits how this was forgotten. Overwritten and "corrected" by a wealth of Victorian male scholarship who turned women doctors in male doctors and midwives, who removed womens' guilds from the historical record, and generally rewrote history to suit their sense of what was appropriate. This book left me feeling very happy, and with a very different view of medieval Europe than the one I'd been brought up with. show less
Contains 131 pages of well researched material on medieval cooking and over 100 recipes claimed to have come from original manuscripts. Thus far, no one has found the original source for any of the recipes. The SCA has been searching since 1976 for the sources. However, the recipes are tasty and are similar to known manuscripts. They resemble recipes from multiple cultures, including Arabic.
Good overview on food customs from farm to table. Nice 'walk thru' of Chaucerian food procurement practices (marketing) and safety regulations regarding food vendors (citation of laws and practices of public shaming for those who broke them). Less detail on specific kitchen practices and utensils, but I didn’t read all 100+ provided recipes so perhaps this is covered in that section in greater detail. While engaging, not a ‘smooth’ read, somewhat verbose in making the point at times show more and occasionally confusing as to “when” one is on the timeline of the content (given the rather broad range of dates covered). show less
I love this book, it’s a great way to spiff up your homeschool year. We’ve had 12th Night and several other celebrations.
Awards
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- Works
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- Also by
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- Rating
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