In the Middle Ages, a manciple was the person in charge of purchasing and storing food for an institution, such as a college or monastery. He might also have had a role in food preparation. The word arises most notably in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which seems to be one of the first instances of its usage. Manciple Street, in one of the oldest sections of London, is one among a group of streets, including Prioress Street and Pilgrimage Street, named with Chaucer's work in mind. Its archaic origins notwithstanding, the word is occasionally still used to describe some food management jobs.
Some of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge have employees called manciples. In 2010, Saint Edmund's College at Cambridge advertised an opening for a manciple who would be responsible for overseeing the provision of regular meals and the catering of special events. The job duties also included supervision of general housekeeping and maintenance and assistance in the development of health and safety policies.
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, a manciple for one of the inns of court belongs to the company of pilgrims who are telling stories as they travel. In the prologue to the work, the manciple is revealed as an intelligent but unscrupulous man. He is able to cheat the lawyers who employ him because they fail to notice a man whom they believe inferior to themselves. He tells the story of a crow who told the god Apollo that his wife was being unfaithful to him. Apollo's final response is to curse the crow whose gossip has caused him such grief.
The manciple tells his story following a dispute with the drunken cook, whom the leader of the company warns the manciple against offending. The host reminds the manciple that the cook could make trouble for him if the manciple were to tell an unkind tale about cooks. The tale seems to warn of the dangers of vicious storytelling, whether or not the stories are true.
The English word manciple is derived from the Middle English word maunciple, which is the form of the word used by Chaucer. Its earliest recorded usage is in the 13th century Ancrene Riwle or Guide for Anchoresses. The word is ultimately derived from the classical Latin mancipium, which referred to a slave, a person who had been purchased. Mancipium became the medieval Latin manceps which added the concept of the purchaser of provisions to the definition.
