Fish on Friday : feasting, fasting, and the discovery of the New World / Brian Fagan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fagan, Brian M.

Contributor:

Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fisheries--North America--History.

Fisheries.

Fish as food.

History.

Discoveries in geography.

North America--Discovery and exploration.

North America.

Fish as food--History.

Penn Provenance:

Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)

Physical Description:

xxv, 338 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, [2006]

Summary:

"Fish on Friday tells a new story of the discovery of America. In Brian Fagan's view, that discovery is the product of the long sweep of history: the spread of Christianity and the radical cultural changes it brought to Europe, the interaction of economic necessity with a changing climate, and generations of unknown fishermen who explored the North Atlantic in the centuries before Columbus. The Church's tradition of not eating meats on holy days created a vast market for fish that could not be fully satisfied by fish farms, better boats, or new preservation techniques. Then, when climate change in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries diminished fish stocks off Norway and Iceland, fishermen were forced to range ever farther to the west - eventually discovering incredibly rich shoals within sight of Newfoundland."--Jacket.

Contents:

Preface

Author's note

Recipes

Timeline of major events

pt. 1. The great atonement

1. The big fish

2. Mortification of the flesh

pt. 2. The fish industry is born

3. "By the aid of God's grace"

4. Salt upon salt : preserving the catch

5. Gadus Morhua

6. The Northmen

7. The ant of the sea

8. The power of invention

9. The carp bubble

10. The sin of gluttony

11. The boat lost to history

12. The rise and fall of the Icelandic fishery

pt. 3. Discovery

13. "Serche & fynde a certain isle"

14. A new found lande

pt. 4. Harvest and settlement

15. The migrant fishery

16. "Great store of cod-fish"

17. Puritans and Cains

Acknowledgments

Notes

Recipe references

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-324) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.

ISBN:

0465022855

0465022847

9780465022847

OCLC:

61295758

Publisher Number:

99944269186