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 even Seghiso). From Modena, he died in 1571 and was buried in Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, Paris.¹

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. Scottish royal households 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. The French provisions are listed for bouche and commun, two kitchens or services.

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. It’s a fish day, and this would be ordinary Wednesday except Henri II died on 10 July, and his funeral would be the next day or the day after.

Possibly, a mention of marzipan, almonds, and sugar may have some connection with the funeral or mourning customs. As usual there were artichokes and Milan cheese, probably made in France. Similar daily accounts have been transcribed and printed. The total for this day was 156 livres.

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. There was brochet (a river pike), alloze, (a freshwater herring), and barbeau (barbel).

1. Épitaphier du vieux Paris, 5 (Paris, 1875), pp. 186-187. ↩︎