05 April, 2012

Medieval History Professor Discovers Unicorn Cookbook

I didn't notice this until today but it's the best April Fool's Day joke I have seen this year. From the British Library comes "Unicorn Cookbook Found at the British Library".

After recipes for herring, tripe and codswallop (fish stew, a popular dish in the Middle Ages) comes that beginning "Taketh one unicorne". The recipe calls for the beast to be marinaded in cloves and garlic, and then roasted on a griddle. The cookbook's compiler, doubtless Geoffrey Fule himself, added pictures in its margins, depicting the unicorn being prepared and then served. Sarah J Biggs, a British Library expert on medieval decoration, commented that "the images are extraordinary, almost exactly as we'd expect them to be, if not better".

They even Photoshopped some wonderful illumination for the joke. Those medievalists are some hoopy froods.



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