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When examining illustrations of gridirons and grills in culinary functions from the Middle Ages and Renaissance, fish seems to be the most frequently seen foodstuff cooked in this manner, as Anna Maria Huffnäglin demonstrates.
Iconography relating to saints tends to be the dominant source of illustrations of grills and gridirons, since they appear in relation to martyrdoms of saints (especially St. Lawrence). Because these images tend to form the bulk of what I’ve found – but do not seem to represent the day-to-day usage of grills and gridirons among most people of the era – nor, in many cases, do they seem to relate to realistic forms for functional equipment for grilling meat instead of implements of torture (as in Douce 332, fol. 178v, for example) – I’ve set off these sorts of images in a section of saint-related iconography.
(I’m considering removing the saints section altogether, since the styles of grills and gridirons found in these images seem to be different from the real-world styles in terms of scale and sometimes construction, and I’d rather focus this page on realistic implements for cookery rather than iconography relating to saints. There are occasional details on these images that may be relevant to the construction of real-world grills, however – such as Schongauer’s St. Lawrence – but overall, these depictions tend to be too large to represent a grill or gridiron that people would have used for preparing food.)
Some grilling recipes also provide further details on how these grills and gridirons were used.
For more on this topic, see The Medieval Braai/Barbecue.
- Gridiron (British Museum 1844,0223.21), Roman Britain, 4th century
- An item from the 9th century Mastermyr find is often considered to be a hanging grill, but Interpreting an Artifact: The Mastermyr 'Fire Grid' as a case study argues that it could not have functioned in such a way and may have been a lighting device.
- Pot-stand or gridiron (British Museum 1891,1021.86), Norway, 9th-10th century
- A man plays a grill with tongs in the marginalia of a psalter (Douce 5, fol. 164v), c. 1320-1330
- A man plays a grill with a flesh hook in the marginalia of a psalter (Douce 6, fol. 188r), c. 1320-1330
- Marginalia on fols
60r,
60v,
123v,
195r,
and 280r
of Lancelot du Lac (BNF Fr. 16999), c. 1325-1350
- Marginalia on fols. 5v, 38r and 111r of Roman de la Rose (BNF Fr. 25526), c. 1325-1350
- Marginalia on fols.
345,
421, and
456
of the Life and Miracles of St. Louis (BNF Fr. 5716), c. 1330-1340
- A child’s toy: a grill with two fish (Cluny CL17852), 15th century
- A hybrid man holds a gridiron on fol. 89r and a kneeling man holds a gridiron on fol. 160v in the marginalia of the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004), c. 1415-1430
- An apostle grills fish on a gridiron, a book of hours (PML M.359, fol. 94v), c. 1430-1435
- The Holy Family at supper, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (PML M.917, p. 151), c. 1440
- Decan of Leo, Liber astrologiae (BNF Latin 7331, fol. 18v), mid-15th century
- Detail from The Birth of Mary, 1489
- Decan of Leo, Liber astrologiae (BNF Smith-Lesouëf 8, fol. 5v), end of the 15th century
- A grill with a fish and a sausage, the Tudor Pattern Book (Ashmole 1504), c. 1520-1530
- The infancy of the Christ Child a book of hours (PML M.1175, fol. 44v), c. 1525-1530
- Kitchen interior, c. 1565
- The broyling of their fish ouer the flame of fier by John White (British Museum PD1906,0509.1.11.b), c. 1585-1593
- Masked musicians who play a gridiron and a bellows, 1595-1596
- Post-medieval toy gridiron, 16th-17th century
- A standing grill or gridiron, 17th century
- Anna Maria Huffnäglin in the Mendel Housebook, 1633
GRILLING RECIPES
These include grilling recipes and references to grills and gridirons.
SAINTS WITH GRILLS AND GRIDIRONS
- Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, a psalter (KB 76 F 5), 1190s
- St. Lawrence being roasted on a gridiron, a psalter (British Library Burney 345, fol. 69), third quarter of the 13th century
- The martyrdom of St. Lawrence, burned on a gridiron, the Queen Mary Psalter (British Library Royal 2 B VII, fol. 261r), 1310-1320
- St. Lawrence martyred on a grill, the Stowe Breviary (British Library Stowe 12, fol. 292r), 1322-1325 and 1350-1380
- St. Lawrence, gradual from Santa Maria degli Angeli c. 1370
- St. Lawrence holding a gridiron, representing his death by burning on a grill, an illustrated physician’s almanac (British Library Harley 2332, fol. 8v/9r), 1411-1412
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, a missal (PML M.374, fol. 136r), c. 1420
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, a book of hours (PML M.1000, fol. 219v), c. 1420
- The martyrdom of St. Lawrence, a book of hours (PML M.27, fol. 160v), c. 1420-1430
- St. Lawrence holding a gridiron, an antiphonal (Douce a. 1, fol. 49r), c. 1425-1450
- St. Lawrence, 1430-1440
- St. Lawrence being martyred on a gridiron, the Dunois Hours (British Library Yates Thompson 3, fol. 273v), c. 1439-1450
- St. Lawrence holding a gridiron, a book of hours (Add. A. 185, fol. 62r), c. 1440
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, the Hours of Catherine of Cleves (PML M.917, p. 266), c. 1440
- St. Lawrence with a gridiron at his feet, cuttings from a choir book (British Library Additional 18197, fol. H), c. 1450-1475
- St. Lawrence, a book of hours (PML M.199, fol. 280r), c. 1460
- St. Lawrence from the portrait diptych of Laurent Froimont by Rogier van der Weyden, 1460s
- St. Lawrence holding a grill, c. 1460-1470
- St. Lawrence holding a grill, c. 1465-1500
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a book of hours (PML M.316, fol. 37r), c. 1470
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a book of hours (PML G.01, II, fol. 250r), c. 1475
- St. Lawrence holding a grill, c. 1470-1490
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a book of hours (PML M.1001, fol. 152v), c. 1475
- St. Lawrence by Martin Schongauer, 15th century
- Jeton of the roasters’ guild with St. Martin (?) holding a grill, Musée de Cluny Cl.3570, 15th century
- St. Faith holds a grill, devotionary of Juana de Aragon, 15th century
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, a prayer book (PML H.3, fol. 164v), c. 1490
- St. Lawrence holding a gridiron, the Breviary of Queen Isabella of Castile (British Library Additional 18851, f. 431r), c. 1497
- St. Lawrence, the Tilliot Hours (British Library Yates Thompson 5, fol. 116), c. 1500
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a breviary (Canon. Liturg. 343, fol. 184r), c. 1500
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a book of hours (PML H.5, fol. 138r), c. 1500
- St. Lawrence holding a grill, a book of hours (M.1114, fol. 77v), 1500-1510
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, a book of hours (Douce 112, fol. 158r), early 16th century
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, a book of hours (PML M.1114, fol. 77v), c. 1500-1510
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, a book of hours (PML M.431, fol. 159v), c. 1500-1520
- Piccoli Santi: St. Lawrence holding a gridiron, 1500-1527
- St. Lawrence holds a grill, the Da Costa Hours (PML M.399, fol. 287v), c. 1515
- St. Lawrence holding a grill, Praeparatio ad missam pontificalem (PML H.6, fol. 1v), 1520
- St. Lawrence from a book of illuminations, 1523
- St. Lawrence holds a gridiron, the Hours of Pierre de Bosredont (PML G.55, fol. 127v), c. 1529
- Martyrdom of St. Lawrence by Girolamo da Santa Croce
- Martyrdom of St. Lawrence by Pellegrino Tibaldi, 1592
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