Abstract

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.

This paper discusses the diet in various European institutions of early modern poor relief (hospitals, workhouses etc.). As we know only little about the individual poor man's diet, one has to refer to accounts and household-books of welfare and poor relief institutions in order to get a rather close and approximate picture of the level of consumption of the lower classes in general and the poor in particular. Providing a short summary of the historical approach to food and diets, this paper also deals with the social significance of diets, the quality and variety of a poor man's diet, and the nutritional status of the poor. A first attempt is made to analyse systematically the rich source material provided by the archives of charitable and penal institutions in pre-industrial Europe. Though various countries are represented in this study, the main emphasis lies on German source material.