A MEDIEVAL HOME COMPANION: Housekeeping in the...

A MEDIEVAL HOME COMPANION: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century translated from the French and edited by Tania Bayard (HarperPerennial: $10; 139 pp., illustrated). In 1393, an elderly, well-to-do Parisian prepared this guide to household management at the request of his 15-year-old bride, who was about to arrive from the provinces. Although the unknown author stresses the medieval virtues of modesty and piety, the text is pleasantly free of the oppressive sexism a modern reader might expect. Most of the book covers practical matters: how to deal with the household servants, the correct way of storing fur garments, recipes for rat poison and a calendar of when to plant vegetables and herbs.