SC - My First Feast as Head Cook
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Tue Oct 24 15:17:19 PDT 2000
Regarding Apicius, much of what we do know is apocryphal. According to said
legends, Apicius did live in first century Rome and committed suicide when he
found that he had spent so much of his fortune that he could not live any
longer in the style to which he had become accustomed. We do know that man of
this name did live during the time of the emperor Tiberius (14 A.D. to 37
A.D.) as he is mentioned by several authors and can surmise that he is the
author.
Most of the book was written in the first century A.D. according to studies
of the text and references within the text to various personages. Other parts
however seem to have been added at a later date and may be from agricultural
texts by Apuleius and some sections seem to come from different texts
altogether. Further, some of the receipts seem to be out of order and may be
the result of later additions or rearrangments by later copiers. There are no
extant copies of the original document.
I have a question to throw out here - what translation would you consider the
best? I now know enough Latin to translate the recipes by myself but I still
prefer to check myself occasionally using Flowers and Rosenbaum (1957) as I
find Vehling far too dry (1936) but I have heard others comment on what they
consider better additions.
LLEW
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