Payments for food for the household of Catherine de’ Medici were recorded daily, on long narrow strips of parchment. Usually the strips were signed by her Italian master of household J-B Seghiro or Seghizo (or Seghiso). Originally from Modena, he died in 1571 aged 84 and was buried in Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Paris.1

Joa Bapta Seghizo, for many years first master of household.

I haven’t yet figured out if the daily strips were copied into accounts covering a longer period. Examples of the parchment strips are held in various archives, but not in large numbers.2 The format is unfamiliar to me. Scottish royal household accounts survive in paper ledgers (in Latin, French, and Scots) in comparable daily formats, with monthly lists of extra purchases. They also don’t include the wages of kitchen staff, or any kind of recipe, and only rarely name dishes. The French daily provisions are listed for bouche and commun, two kitchens or services.

The format on a single side of a long parchment strip seems inconvenient.

I’ve been looking the account for Wednesday 9 August 1559, “Mercredi ix jour d’Aoust mvc lix La Royne mere du Roy, La Royne d’Espaigne, et Madame, a St Germain en laye”. I’m guessing that Madame was Claude, Madame de Lorraine, who was Elisabeth of Spain’s sister. It’s a fish day, and this would be an ordinary Wednesday except Henri II died on 10 July, and his funeral would be in the days following.

Possibly, a mention of marzipan, almonds, and sugar may have some connection with the funeral or mourning customs. As usual there were oranges, artichokes, and Milan cheese, fromage de Millan, probably made in France. There is some debate along the lines of the possible Italian character of Catherine’s cuisine and its influence on the French menu. Some other similar day accounts have been transcribed in full and printed.3 The total for this day was 157 livres.

Mercredi ixe jour d’aoust mvclix (9 August 1559) La Royne mere du Roy, La Royne d’Espaigne et Madame a St Germain en Laye. Note the pin hole which may have been handy while writing the thing, or used for storing it. Madame de St Quentin was paid for wine
Au pastieur pour xiiii pastis de poisson … marsepanne …, A l’appo[ticai]re … sucre … almandis … raissons …

Despite two or three comparable published accounts, reading the quantities and measures is a challenge for me. As well as big and small fish, it looks like the weight and the lengths of some fish were recorded.4 There was brochet (river pike), alloze, (a freshwater herring), and barbeau (barbel). Eel was prepared as anguille de rost and anguille de paste. Other sources mention that one of the queen mother’s fishmongers was Lienard Habert of the Rue Quicquetonne or Tiquetonne.

Cuisines: Bouche: Aux poissoniers pour j brochet … carpe … anguille de rost … Commun: A Eulx pour j barbeau … carpe … saulmon fraiz … truicte … anguille de paste … ij barbeaux … j petit turbot … truicte …
Sardine, Pierre Belon, La nature & diuersité des poissons (Paris, 1555).

For pictures of French renaissance fish try Pierre Belon, La nature & diuersité des poissons (Paris, 1555) on archive dot org.

  1. Épitaphier du vieux Paris, 5 (Paris, 1875), pp. 186-187. ↩︎
  2. Administration des revenus de la maison royale de France; Écroues où rôles des dépenses faites pour le service de la table de la reine Catherine de Médicis A78: Inventaire-sommaire des archives départementales: Seine-et-Marne. Supplement, 3 (Fontainebleau, 1875), pp. 6-10: The British Library has “30 June 1559”, according to, Catalogo dos manuscriptos Portuguezes Existentes no Museo Britannico (Lisbon, 1853), p. 328. ↩︎
  3. Victor de Beauville, Recueil de documents concernant la Picardie, 2 (Paris, 1867), pp. 215-217, for Monday 24 July 1554. ↩︎
  4. See a list of fish bought in March 1571; Victor E. Graham & W. McAllister Johnson, The Paris Entries of Charles IX and Elisabeth of Austria, 1571 (University of Toronto, 1974), pp. 312-314, 384-390. ↩︎

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