Presenting a rare glimpse into the dining rooms of Belgian nobility from the Middle Ages to modern times, specialists in the field discuss gastronomy and festive culture in a historical and sociological context. This stunning work provides insights into both the culinary proclivities and table manors of these epic gourmands, answering such questions as What was the daily menu of the dukes of Burgundy? What was behind the sudden enthusiasm for saltwater fish in the 17th century? and Why were exotic desserts so popular in the 19th century? A valuable addition to the historical study of Belgian Noblemen and the ruling elite, this bilingual collection--presented in both English and French--creates a wonderfully rich portrait of the past, from the dukes of Burgundy to Belgian royalty.

Rafe Blaufarb examines the interwoven problems of taxation and social privilege in this treatment of the contention over fiscal privilege between the seigneurial nobility and the tax-payers of Provence

Preliminary Material -- INTRODUCTION: UN REGARD GLACE: L'AVENTURE CHEVALERESQUE COMME «JUSTIFICATION» DE CLASSE -- CHAPITRE PREMIER: L'EFFET DE ROMAN LA FASCINATION DU MODELE ROMANESQUE -- CHAPITRE II: UN 'PILIER DU MONDE' -- CHAPITRE III: LE RITUEL SYMBOLIQUE DE L'ADOUBEMENT -- CHAPITRE IV: LA PASSION DU TOURNOI ET SES INTERDITS -- CHAPITRE V: LE PLAISIR DES ARMES -- CHAPITRE VI: LA PERSPECTIVE DE LA MIMESIS -- CHAPITRE VII: JEUX D'AMOUR, JEUX D'ECHECS -- CHAPITRE VIII: LE CEREMONIAL DU JEU -- CHAPITRE IX: LES «MISTERES» DU PAS DE L'ARBRE D'OR ET LE CHEVALIER PRISONNIER -- CHAPITRE X: JEU ET RITUEL -- CHAPITRE XI: 'ENTRE SOMMEILLANT ET ESVEILLE' -- D'UNE TECHNIQUE CHEVALERESQUE A UNE EXPERIENCE POETIQUE -- CHAPITRE XII: L'EMPRISE DU VISUEL -- CHAPITRE XIII: LE HERAUT D'ARMES ET LA TRADITION LITTERAIRE CHEVALERESQUE -- CHAPITRE XIV: LA FETE CHEVALERESQUE -- CHAPITRE XV: LE TROUBLE-FETE -- CHAPITRE XVI: LE GOTHIQUE FLAMBOYANT ET L'ESPRIT BAROQUE: ESQUISSE THEORIQUE D'UNE EXPERIENCE ESTHETIQUE -- CHAPITRE XVII: LE PARADOXE DU JEU CHEVALERESQUE -- CONCLUSION -- BIBLIOGRAPHIE -- INDEX DES AUTEURS ET DES OEUVRES.

Gossage uses a family-reconstitution method, drawing on local parish registers and manuscript-census schedules, to focus on marriage, household organization, and family size in this context of social and economic change. Family formation was profoundly affected as couples adjusted to the new urban, industrial setting. Gossage demonstrates that demographic behaviour was increasingly differentiated by social class, with distinct marriage and fertility patterns emerging among bourgeois and proletarian families. Bourgeois women who married in the 1860s, for example, were already limiting family size, a crucial shift that did not occur in working-class families until almost a generation later. Families in Transition demonstrates the extent to which stereotypes about family life in Quebec before the Quiet Revolution need to be revisited. Far from being passive, static, uniformly prolific, and constrained by religious and cultural perspectives, Saint-Hyacinthe families responded quickly to the changing realities of the day, reinventing marriage patterns and domestic arrangements to fit the new industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century. In this sense they were truly families in transition.