Alimentaţia locuitorilor din oraşele transilvănene în secolul al XVII‑lea
Nourishment of people in the towns of Transylvania during the 17th century

Summary/Abstract: The present study stands on documents provinding from the towns of Cluj, Târgu Mureş, Alba Iulia, and Braşov that allow us to reconstitute certain aspects of people feeding during the 17th century. Registers and account books from St. Duh/ The Holy Ghost and Sf. Elisabeta/ St. Elisabeth asyla (1601–1650) in Cluj are of great importance for containing very many details on regular nourishment both of the refugees and the ones who used to have a meal there. Namely, guardians, auditors belonging to the town elite, workers and villains brought there for special and temporary activities. Starting from such papers with large data on nourisment of different social-economic and cultural categories, I analyze both the common elements and the particular ones that constituted the people feeding in the cities of Transylvania within the 17th century. The Town of Cluj Rules on Trade and Goods (1668) is a precious source in aknowledging the city strategy and, implicitly, the local mentality concerning feedind supply and trade. Forwards, my analysis presents the main features of people feeding, from ingredients and menus, to daily consumption framing. The sources also show the women’s specific part in urban trade with feeding products and the culinary art developing. The first cookbook, written by Sofia Tofeus in 1692 (Târgu Mureş) demonstrates it. Even if great discrepancies marked the nourishment of people in Cluj, we may consider that the interest, the efforts for a healthy feeding using fresh ingredients, and diversification of nourishment were the factors which connected all of them.

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