Food & Religious Law
Not limited exclusively to secular law, the Law Library collections have a small number of books on religious law, including those displayed here. Food plays an important part in most religions in the form of offerings, symbolic foods, dietary restrictions and celebratory foods.
Manava-Dherma-Sastra; or the Institutes of Menu. v. 1 & 2. London : Cox and Baylis, 1825.
This Sanskrit volume and its English translation of these ancient Hindu law codes were edited by Graves Chamney Haughton, an English professor of Hindu religion. In his dedication to King George IV, he notes that the Institutes were not only revered by Hindus but "have contributed to preserve, in pristine force, opinions, usages, and manners, which have only grown stronger by the use of ages."
The pages shown here, "On diet, purification, and women," list some of the foods forbidden to the Brahmin class. These restrictions continue for several pages and affect a wide variety of specific foods, as well as actions, such as killing animals for food.
Babylonian Talmud. v.19. Vilna : Rom, 1931.
Tractate Hullin 104b:
Mishnah. A fowl may be placed upon the table together with cheese but may not be eaten with it: so Beth Shammai. Beth Hillel say, It may neither be placed [upon the table together with cheese] nor eaten with it. R. Jose said, This is an instance where Beth Shammai adopt the lenient ruling and Beth Hillel the strict ruling. Of what table did they speak? Of the table upon which one eats; but on the table whereon the food is set out one may without any hesitation place the one [food] beside the other.
(Translation: Eli Cashdan)
This set of the Babylonian Talmud, printed in Vilna between the years 1927-1932, is one of the last complete sets of the Talmud to be printed in Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War. It was printed by the Widow and Brothers Romm, who were widely known for their quality editions of Jewish classical texts. The "Vilna Shas," as this edition was called, became a standard and continues to be photographically reproduced in the United States and abroad.
Biblia sacra : vulgatae editionis. Venice : Nicolas Pezzana, 1727.
The Pentateuch in chapter 11 of Leviticus lists in detail all the animals God declared clean or unclean and consequently permitted or forbidden to be eaten. Among the unclean animals are all those which chew their cud and have cloven hooves. "This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature ." (Verse 46)
Arrest de la cour de Parlement, portant permission d'exposer & vendre des oeufs pendant le Caréme de cette année 1778. Paris : P.G. Simon, 1778.
This arrêt concerned the display and sale of eggs in the markets and public places of Paris during Lent 1778. It announces that the procurer general to the king had received an indulgence from the Church to allow the sale of eggs from Ash Wednesday through Easter Week.