William "Pincerna" d'Aubigny - Guillaume d'Aubigny, perhaps...

Started by Curt Quentin Harris on Saturday, July 25, 2020
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7/26/2020 at 12:11 AM

The profiles are grandfather and grandson. Not much is known about the grandfather. Both Daubeney families were obscure before they came to England.

Pincerna is Latin for butler. The grandson was Butler to Henry I. I don't know of his father or grandfather ever being a butler.

The picture seems to show a sideboard with a row of bottles. But there's nothing to connect it with William Pincerna particularly. Could be just a generic illustration of a medieval butler.

7/26/2020 at 3:37 PM

The portrait is used a lot, but it's erroneous.

I can't find the manuscript it's from, much to my annoyance, but it cannot date earlier than about 1350. I know this from the shoes.

Also the houpeland, which dates from about that time.

So this sorta annoys me. Because it might be a generic Pincerna, but it certainly looks nothing like either of the people in question would have looked.

7/26/2020 at 6:40 PM

Does "butler" even have the same meaning as it did back then? I know "usher" does not.

7/26/2020 at 8:07 PM

Almost, but not quite. A “boteler” was a steward in charge of the bottles — the king’s wines. So, from the time of these profiles, one of the members of the royal household staff. Nowadays the job entails more general duties. But butlers are still in charge of the wines.

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