Csapó Katalin - Füreder Balázs - Sári Zsolt: Reneszánsz ételek – Ételek reneszánsza Időszaki kiállítás 2008. március–május (Budapest, 2008)

!7 Account of a Renaissance feast The following event took place during the reign of Ladisias V: Gaston IV, comte de Foix, gave a large dinner at Tours in 1457, which was attended by, in addition to the Hungarian king's embassy, Germans, Bohemians, Luxembourgers, and a hundred and fifty local guests. The guests were seated in strict order of pre-cedence at twelve large tables. The host, together with the leaders of the embassy and the most important French notables, served separately, as was customary, at a high table. The chronicler and publisher of the source recounted thus: The meal opened modestly with pieces of toast that the diner dipped into spiced wine called hippocras, but then swiftly moved on to 'grands pates de chapons [capons]', 'jambons de sanglier [hams of wild boar]', and seven different kinds of pottage, all served on silver. Each table bore a hundred and forty silver plates, a feat of ostentation that was to be repeated in the courses that followed. Ragouts of game came next: pheasants, partridges, rabbits, peacocks, bustards, wild geese, swans and various river birds, not to mention venison. These ragouts were accompanied by several other kinds of dishes and pottage. Then came a pause. Although there is no reference in our account to the placement of tables, they must have been arranged in a horseshoe forming an arena at the centre. Into that space came what was called an entremet, the first of a series. Twelve men wheeled in a castle on a rock. [...] The castle itself had four corner towers and a large keep at the centre with four windows, at each of which could be seen a richly attired lady The central keep was adorned with heraldic banners bearing the arms of the king of Hungary and those of the other great lords who made up the embassy. At the top of each of the four towers a child sang like an angel (though what they sang we do not learn). After this display the feast resumed with a dish called oiseaux armes', which has defied definition by culinary historians, served with yet more pottages. But the