SC - private-horsemeat

[margali]

swbro at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> I have been reading Scully's Medival Food, and would like to read more about
> the humors of food.  Does anybody have a favorite book they would recommend?
> Scully lists his sources, but none in English that I have seen yet.  I would
> like to be able to plan a menu, understanding the medievally logical
> progression of dishes.  Also, to understand which spices and food
> preparations would most complement a particular food.  Thanks in advance
> 
> Eleanor d'Aubrecicourt

Apart from Scully's own work, which is pretty exhaustive on the subject
when viewed all together, including intros to translated and edited
works of other authors, you might check for any of several available
forms of Tacuinum Sanitatis, generally published across Southern Europe
in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries (I _think_ those are correct
dates), giving medical information about various foods and other
environmental items that were thought to have an effect on the body,
ranging from wool clothing to garlic to coitus to anger to winter rooms.
Each is graded according to how warm or cool, moist or dry it is,
optimal conditions for use, possible dangers of use, and how to
neutralize dangers. So, for example, you might find a reference to
winter pears (I'm making this one up) being warm in the first degree,
moist in the second, but liable to cause windiness, which can be
counteracted by eating them in the afternoon with dry white wine. I'd be
willing to bet you've seen one or more such sources listed in Scully's
bibliographies, but as to their availability in English, take heart.
There are at least two published fairly recently: one is called "The
Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti", and the other, better one is
called "The Medieval Health Handbook".

You can also get Mark Grant's translation of Anthimus "On the Observance
of Foods" from Amazon.com, but be prepared to notice little or no
consistency between different medical opinions on a given item. This
might be due to geographical and chronological separation; Anthimus is
much earlier than Abdul Hassim, the physician to whom Tacuinum Sanitatis
is credited.

Then there's Andrew Boorde's Dietery of Helth (1542 C.E.), which is
mostly a rehashing of Galen on the same subject, and a couple of
specific cookery books which give some insight: Platina's "De Honesta
Voluptate et Valitudinae", and Maitre Chiquart D'Amiczo's "Du Fait de
Cuisine", both undoubtedly found in Scully's bibliography.
 
This is a fun subject... or you can probably tell I think so, anyway.

HTH,

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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