A refectory table is a highly elongated table[ The Complete Guide to Furniture Styles By Louise Ade Boge] used originally for dining in monastery during Medieval times. In the Late Middle Ages, the table gradually became a or meal table in and other nobility residences. The original table manufacture was by hand and created of oak or walnut; the design is based on a trestle table. Typically, the table legs are supported by circumferential stretchers positioned very low to the floor.
History
In its original use, one or more refectory tables were placed within the
' dining hall or
refectory. The larger refectories would have a number of refectory tables where monks would take their meals, often while one of the monks read sacred texts from an elevated
pulpit,
[The Quarterly Review – Page 384
by William Gifford, George Walter Prothero, John Gibson Lockhart, John Murray, Whitwell Elwin, John Taylor Coleridge, Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle, William Macpherson, William Smith – 1899] frequently reached from a stone
staircase to one side of the refectory. Secular use of the refectory table is thought to have originated in the
Mediterranean regions of
Europe, where increasingly ornate designs were adopted by Italian and other craftsmen.
[ Miller's: Reference Edition, Mitchell Beazley and Judith Miller, Sterling Publishers, 2005] Adaptation of the refectory table outside the monasteries traveled to central and northern parts of Europe in the late 16th century. For example the
Italy artist
Giulio Romano traveled to
France in the first half of the 16th century and brought concepts of the Italian style to the French court of Francis I. Later in the 16th century the secular refectory table spread to
Flemish Region and
Germany locales. While the Mediterranean refectory tables emphasized the use of
walnut,
oak wood became equally common in these more northern parts of Europe.
Notable examples
Stanford Hall in
Leicestershire,
England has numerous areas of early furnishings including one room with original 17th-century furnishings including a refectory table and set of Charles II chairs.
[ The Ordnance Survey Guide to Historic Houses in Britain, Peter Furtado, Great Britain Ordnance Survey, 1987]
See also
