The Evolution of the Mediterranean Diet from the Middle Ages

The concept of the Mediterranean diet is a modern invention; the Middle Ages and Renaissance had some very different food values. This lecture presents a look at the recent construct and its relationship with overview of medieval and Renaissance diets. It ties the diets of the present and the past together.
Allen J. Grieco is the Lila Acheson Wallace Assistant Director for Gardens and Grounds & Scholarly Programs at Villa I Tatti (The Harvard University Center for Renaissance Studies in Florence), Director of the M. A. Program in Food Studies at the Universita` delle Scienze Gastronomiche, and is presently a Visiting Professor in History at Harvard University. He has taught courses on the history of food at the universities of Bologna and Tours.

This lecture is sponsored by the UCSB Medieval Studies Program. For more information contact Ed English.

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