Constance Bartlett Hieatt facts for kids
Constance Bartlett Hieatt (born February 11, 1928 – died December 29, 2011) was an American expert who loved old languages and stories from the Middle Ages. She studied things like Old Norse literature, Anglo-Saxon literature, and Middle English language and culture. She was known for editing and translating important works like Karlamagnús saga and Beowulf. She was also a top expert in English medieval cooking and old cookbooks, writing many important books on the subject.
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About Her Life
Constance Hieatt was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 11, 1928. She grew up in New York City, where she went to Friends Seminary. She earned her first two degrees from Hunter College and later got her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1960.
She worked in New York City for a while, including in publishing. She later married A. Kent Hieatt, who was also a medieval scholar. They both became full professors at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. After they retired, they moved to Connecticut. Constance Hieatt passed away on December 29, 2011.
Her Amazing Work
Constance Hieatt wrote many books and articles about medieval times.
Bringing Old Stories to Life
In 1967, she published a translation of Beowulf, a very old English poem. She also worked on Old Norse literature and translated the Karlamagnús saga, a long story about the famous king Charlemagne. This work was published in three books between 1975 and 1980.
King Arthur for Young Readers
One of her special projects was rewriting parts of the Arthurian Cycle for children. These are famous stories about King Arthur and his knights. Her books included:
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1967)
- The Knight of the Cart (1969), which was a new version of Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart
- The Joy of the Court (1971), based on Erec and Enide
- The Sword and the Grail (1972), a retelling of Perceval, the Story of the Grail
Uncovering Medieval Recipes
Constance Hieatt was especially famous for her work on English medieval cooking. She edited and translated old handwritten recipe books from the Middle Ages. She also showed how to adapt these recipes for modern kitchens.
She often worked with Sharon Butler. Together, they wrote a very popular book called Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks in 1976. This book helped many people try medieval dishes. They also published Curye on Inglysch in 1985. In 1988, Hieatt published An Ordinance of Pottage.
With Rudolf Grewe, she published The Libellus de Arte Coquinaria in 2001. This book was important because it showed some of the oldest collections of European recipes written in everyday language. She also wrote articles about medieval food for important academic magazines like Speculum and Medium Aevum.
Listing All the Old Cookbooks
Constance Hieatt also tried to make complete lists of all the medieval cooking manuscripts (old handwritten books).
- In 1992, she helped create the Répertoire des manuscrits médiévaux contenant des recettes culinaires. This book is still a very important guide for finding medieval European cookbook manuscripts.
- In 2006, with Terry Nutter and Johnna H. Holloway, she published the Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries. This book compared different versions of medieval recipes and is very helpful for anyone studying old English food.
- Her 2008 book, A Gathering of Medieval English Recipes, added more information to the 2006 book and included other old cooking manuscripts.
Books She Wrote
- Beowulf and Other Old English Poems (1967, reprinted 1988)
- Karlamagnús saga: The Saga of Charlemagne and His Heroes
- Pleyn Delit: Medieval Cookery for Modern Cooks (1976, with Sharon Butler)
- Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Including the Forme of Cury) (1985, with Sharon Butler)
- An Ordinance of Pottage: An Edition of the Recipes from Yale University's MS Beinecke 163 (1988)
- The Libellus de Arte Coquinaria: An Early Northern Cookery Book (2001, with Rudolf Grewe)
- Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth Through Fifteenth Centuries (2006, with Terry Nutter and Johnna H. Holloway)
- A Gathering of Medieval English Recipes (2008, with Robin F. Jones)
After Her Death
When she passed away, Constance Hieatt had just finished a book called Cocatrice and Lampray Hay. This book contained recipes from a medieval manuscript. She and her colleague Sharon Butler had copied, translated, and explained these recipes. Another book, The Culinary Recipes of Medieval England, was also published after her death.
