SC - Apicius

[Gaylin]

Master A wrote:

>The trouble with this line of thinking is that there aren't as many
>direct parallels between the food of the Rome of Apicius and the
>Rome/Vatican of Platina. There are some very basic similarities, but
>they're pretty superficial.

And if I was just looking for the superficial similarities, then I
might agree with you. However, that is not my main goal. To look
for the similarities I think is always valuable even if the net
result is a discovery of dissimilarity. My goal, however, is not
to do so for that purpose but rather to examine the stemma of
Platina's work. I want to get into his mind. I can do that by
looking at Apicius.

I want to see why he tried (and why I believe he failed) to
adequately use an Apician division to his cookbook. I want to
see where he took Apician material and added Pliny. I want to see
where he skipped Apcius in favor of Martino. I want to see if I
can trace the Arabic traditions back to the Greek medicine in
the Hippocratic corpus and in the work of Galen. And what about
the traditions derived from some of the other aspects you
mentioned? Did, perhaps, Platina look at some of the more
militaristic manuals in search of information? Did he perhaps
glance at Vegetius somewhere in his trip down the library
shelves? I don't know. I doubt it. But I feel compelled to look.

Yes, Sir, there is a danger. But it's one I desperately
want to face.

So again I ask my original question: when people quote Apicius
typically reference a number like "Apicius 227." If the
numbers reference recipe numbers, which text are they using?

Cheers,

Jasmine
Iasmin de Cordoba
iasmin at home.com
gwalli at infoengine.com