Idealised depiction of the 'three estates' (the praying, fighting, and labouring people) from a thirteenth-century copy of the Livres dou Santé. The illumination shows three standing figures framed by the initial letter a. In the middle, a knight wearing a blue surcoat over mail armour and a fully enclosed helmet is turning left to face a secular priest. The tonsured cleric, dressed in a long blue tunic and an anachronistic Greek wraparound cloak, faces the knight and seems to join him in animated conversation. On the right, a peasant wearing a short brown tunic and holding a spade looks on at a respectful distance. Maybe he is considering how good a weapon an iron-shod spade might make?
Original in the British Library, MS Sloane 2435, folio 85
I'm just dropping in today to note that Adalbero of Laon wrote:
"The lord who believes he feeds his servant is in fact fed by him."
#medievalsky #foodhistory #99percent #workingclass
www.culina-vetus.de/2025/05/21/a...