SC - Medieval Hanukah/Purim

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Michelle wrote:
> 
> I'm really interested in the humors concept - have you got any more
> information on it? From what I knew, it wasn't so much hot and cold or wet
> or dry as the colours it was - is this wrong?
> 
> Michelle

Humors were seen by physicians and cooks up until the eighteenth century
or so as characteristics of all living things. People were still bled,
with or without leeches, until quite recently, I _think_ the early 19th
century in some places, and that practice is an offshoot of Galen's
medical influence as much as the idea, say, that sea fish like cod were
dangerously cold and moist, and so needed to be offset by baking in a
pasty and sauced with warm spices (a made-up example, and not
necessarily accurate, but you get the idea).

The concept of improving one's health by adjusting the balance of one's
humors through foods is quite old. Offhand, I don't have a birth date
for Galen, but he's credited with being the first physician to have
brought this type of medical theory to Europe, and the concepts were
later refined by Arab doctors like Abdul Hassim in the 13th and 14th
centuries. The idea of balancing humors to achieve good health has been
practiced by the Chinese for thousands of years, and is still in
extremely wide use there today. (Which is why I'm not allowed to
stir-fry beef with those fermented black soybeans at my house, which is
another story we needn't go into right now ;  ) .   ) 

For more information on the humoric medicine practiced in Europe in
period, see Mark Grant's recent translation of Anthimus's
early-6th-century letter to Theodoric, published as "On The Observance
of Foods",  Terence Scully's "The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages", or
any of a variety of published versions of The Tacuinum Sanitatis,
originally by the aforementioned Abdul Hassim. I've got something called
"The Medieval Health Handbook", and another called, IIRC, "The Four
Seasons of The House of Cerruti", which last I assume to be based on a
single manuscript. The (A?) Tacuinum Sanitatis is essentially a
beautifully illustrated dictionary of foods, beverages, and other bodily
influences such as clothing, weather, and personal habits like sleep,
coitus, vomiting, etc., with a brief description of the humoric or
medical qualities of each. You might also locate Chiquart's "Du Fait de
Cuisine", and Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate et Valitudinae", both of
which are cookbooks which contain some medical advice as to which foods
go together. Then, of course, there is Andrew Boorde's 1542 English
work, The Dyetary of Helth, but this seems to be largely a rehashing of
Galen. What makes it interesting is that it is one of comparatively few
English works that discuss foods of the early-mid 16th century, and,
while not a cookbook, gives a pretty good idea of what was eaten in
England on that difficult-to-document cusp between the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance.
 
And Mistress Elaina wrote:

> Maybe our period counterparts were as culturally set on a humoraly
> balanced meal as we are on having one that includes the four food groups.
> Not that they wouldn't eat something that wasn't humoraly balanced,
> anymore than we will refuse to eat a pizza, but at the same time there's a
> strong, learned, cultural imperative when preparing a meal to fix a meat,
> a starch, a veggie, and a dessert.  Perhaps the cultural imperative was
> just as strong in 1442 to eat or prepare a meal that balanced warm and
> cool foods with dry and moist ones.

Quite likely, although my own personal view is more that while will
listen to our doctors on the subject of fat and cholesterol, and often,
in restaurants, eat meals prepared by effite spa chefs, we still will
occasionally (and in some cases almost exclusively) crave and eat a 1/2
pound hamburger (fried, of course!) topped with a couple of ounces of
cheddar cheese. Oddly enough, I can see someone like Charlemagne
enjoying something along those lines: he apparently was repeatedly
warned by his physicians to lay off the roast meats and sticked to
boiled, and he apparently wasn't too pleased about it. I wonder whether
Anthimus' reach extended 300 years into the future to plague Charles'
dinner table?

Adamantius  
Østgardr, East
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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