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Scattered knives and dismembered song: cutlery, music and the rituals of dining

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posted on 2023-06-08, 05:05 authored by Flora DennisFlora Dennis
One of the rarest sixteenth-century objects going into the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries has a dual identity: it is both a knife and a piece of music. On one side of its broad blade is a clear, perfectly notated musical setting of a blessing of the table, to be sung before a meal; on the other, a prayer giving thanks, to be sung when the meal has ended. This knife is usually presented as a single item. However, the inscription '.i.9 [primus] tenor' implies the existence of other voices, suggesting that it was once part of a larger set of knives, each of which bore one part of a complete polyphonic, or multi-voiced, song. This article confirms that the V&A's knife is one of at least twenty examples surviving in other museums and collections or published during the nineteenth century, and is the first study to consider them as a group. It explores the possible social and symbolic functions of these distinctive objects, relating them to contemporary dining practices, and situates them in the context of broader relationships between music and the material culture of the table during the sixteenth century.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Volume

5

Page range

156-184

Pages

232.0

Book title

Re-thinking Renaissance Objects: Design, Function and Meaning

Place of publication

Chichester

ISBN

9781444337754

Series

Renaissance Studies Special Issues

Department affiliated with

  • Art History Publications

Notes

This was first published as an article in a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Renaissance Studies. The special issue was subsequently published as a book.

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Peta Motture, Michelle O'Malley

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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