Rare Middle Ages chelementes up for auction – The first cookbook in French (photos)

Five centuries of gastronomy – among the most magnificent collections of its kind in France – are “for sale” the day after tomorrow Thursday in Paris.

Taillevent’s “Viandier”, a cookbook estimated to be worth at least half a million euros, will be auctioned by Christie’s in the French capital.

Guillaume Tirrell, also known as Taillevent (1310-1395), cook to the kings of medieval France, Charles V and Charles VI, had signed this collection of recipes he had collected since the end of the previous century.

“Viandier” saw dozens of editions until 1615.

This book, which dates to the end of the 15th century, comes from the sale of a small part of the library of a passionate collector, the Belgian Pierre de Crobrier.

“The Baron of Crobrier’s passion for both culinary art and books – a combination of taste and knowledge – has resulted in the most famous culinary francophone collection in private hands,” Christie’s said in a press release.

The “lighthouse work” is “not only the first cookbook in French, but this prototype, printed in Lyon around 1495, is the first illustrated edition,” the auction house added.

This copy, “a beautifully impressive quarto print” according to Christie’s, is the work of a Lyon archetype, Martin Avar. “Preserved as a remnant of its original binding”, it is estimated at between €400,000 and €600,000.

Also for sale is a copy of the “very excellent cookbook” from 1542, with 350 Renaissance recipes, estimated at between €80,000 and €120,000. It is one of the most important cookbooks of all time, “attesting to the decisive renewal of gastronomy during the Renaissance.”

“Platinum in Francoys” is a rival book to that of Taillevent, written by the Italian Bartolomeo Platina in the 1470s. The 1505 French translation, printed in Lyon, is estimated at between €60,000 and €80,000.

The 1655-1656 copy of an “iconic diptych of French cuisine in the Great Century”, as the 17th century in France is called, “Le Cuisinier françois” by François Pierre, is valued at the same amount. The book was a forerunner in confectionery matters.