Steven Till

Cellarer
[sel-er-er]
Etymology: Middle English celerer, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin cellariarius, from Latin cellarium

Official of a monastery responsible for food supplies. (Gies, Frances and Joseph. Life in a Medieval Village, 243)

From the autobiography of Guibert de Nogent (d. 1124):

For they [the monks] all have their own separate cells round the cloister in which they work, sleep and eat. On Sunday they get their food from the cellarer, that is bread and beans, the latter, their only kind of relish, being cooked by each in his cell.

*term definitions retrieved from Netserf’s Medieval Glossary (http://www.netserf.org/)

Filed under: Middle Ages History, Medieval Glossary, Medieval History on January 8th, 2010