SC - Honey butter

[Philippa Alderton]

Ilia asks:

>Just out of curiosity...What was it a medicine for

Consumption and lung ailments, IIRC.

> and was it ever used as a preventative?

Not that I'm aware of. My copy of Anthimus states:

(Following a discussion of milk, where it is stated that milk and honey is
also good for consumptives, if the milk is warm)

LXXVII

Similiter et de butero recentem si acceperit tisecus. Sed buter ipsum sale
peius exterminat. Si purum et recentum et mel modicum admixtum fuerit sic
linguat catamodicum et supinus se ponat. Tamen de tissecus diximus esse
aptum quos non longo temore obtinuerit causa nam si uulneratus fuerit pulmo
et purulenta excreant nec illis congruum.

Translation:

LXXVII Of Butter

Likewise of butter, if a consumptive take it. But the said butter should
have no salt at all, for if it has salt, it does great damage. If it is
clean and fresh, let a little honey be mixed with it, and let the patient
lick it a little and then lie down flat. (1). Furthermore about
consumptives, it is better for those who have not had it a long time, but if
the lung is punctured and excretes pus, it is not good for those people.

(1) The note is because in the previous recipe, Anthimus had said for the
consumptive drinking warm honeyed milk to lie down, so the mixture would
stay closer to the lungs.

Adamantius, and others, if you have more than one translation of Anthimus,
the previous recipe, # LXXVI, states, " (let a cow or) a goat or a sheep be
milked in his presence;" and has (aut uacca) in parentheses in the Latin
text- is it that way in all the translations, or is the parenthetical part
perhaps an addition by the modern translator?

Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous