Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 145, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 June 1910 — Ancient Table Courtesies. [ARTICLE]

Ancient Table Courtesies.

In the Ambrosian library at Milan there is a thirteenth century manuscript entitled “Fifty Courtesies of the Table.” Its author is Fra Vonvesin of Riva, and it throws an Interesting light on the table manners of those times. “Do not,” writes this rigorous censor, “fill your mouth too full. The glutton who fills his mouth will not be able to reply when spoken to.” The perfect diner is adjured not to soak his bread in his wine, “for,” adds the writer, “if any one should dine with me and thus fish up his victuals I should not like it.” But of the fifty “courtesies” mentioned by the ecclesiastic the prize most certainly must be Awarded to the following: "Let the hands be clean, and, above all, do not at table scratch your head, nor. Indeed, any portion of your body.” After this the advice to refrain from wiping one’s fingers on the tablecloth comes as an anti-climax.