SC - Italian Renaissance----any translations out there?

[Lenny Zimmermann]

On Fri, 6 Jun 1997 07:32, maddie teller-kook <meadhbh at io.com> wrote:

>Does anyone know of ANY translated italian renaissance cookbooks?  I
>have a few italian cookbooks with 'period' style recipes in them but no
>way to verify ingredients. One of the cookbooks I have is "The Heritage
>of Italian Cooking" by Lorenza di Medici.  The photographs in the book
>are gorgeous. The recipes.well...more than half do not even have the
>english translation of the original recipe. 

Castelvetro, Giacomo "The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy, an
Offering to Lucy, Countess of Bedford", 1614. Translated with an
Introduction by Gillian Riley, Foreword by Jane Grigson. Viking Press,
published by the Penguin Group. 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ,
England. First edition, 1989. ISBN 0-670-82724X.
     (Yes, it has more than just a discussion of fruits and veggies in
Italy, it also has a few recipes as well.)

Platina, Bartolomeo "De honesta voluptate". (Original published by L.
de Aguila, Venice in 1475) Translated by Elizabeth Buermann Andrews.
Published by Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in the Mallinckrodt
collection of food classics v. 5, 1967. English translation and
original Latin on opposite pages. LC Call No.: TX711 .P5 1967. Dewey
No.: 641.5945 I do not have the ISBN, but this book is available in
the Library of Congress listings, so you may be able to get it through
Inter-Library Loan.

Joseph Dommers Vehling also wrote a book entitled "Platina and the
rebirth of man", W. M. Hill, Chicago, 1941. LC Call No.: TX713.P6 V4,
Dewey No.: 641.5. The description in the LOC catalog is "Included in a
series of lectures by the author delivered at Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York, during the years 1933 to 1938" and MAY contain some
translations of Platina's work.

Duke Cariadoc's Miscelleny also contains translations of several of
Platina's recipes which, as you can tell from the sources above, were
printed in 1475.

There are a few other Italian works that I would LOVE to get and
perhaps translate someday. Bartolomeo Scappi's "Opera" (or Works)
written in 1596, Domenico Romoli's "La singolare dottrina di M.
Domenico Romoli sopranominato Panunto", and Cristoforo di Messisbugo's
"Banchetti compositioni di vivande, et apparecchio generale di
Christoforo di Messisbugo" among others.

Someone also mentioned "The Art of Renaissance Cooking", also by, I
believe, Gillian Riley. (I don't have to book with me to give the
specifics). While it does not have direct translations, it does give
some sourcing of when, where and who created the recipes that her
redactions are created from. Some very nice recipes, but without
knowing enough italian to make use of it, her biography leaves me in
the same boat as you, still searching for more. If you come up with
any more translated works PLEASE share! (Beg, plead, grovel, etc...)


Honos Servio,
Lionardo Acquistapace, Barony of Bjornsborg, Ansteorra
(mka Lenny Zimmermann, San Antonio, TX)
zarlor at acm.org