[Sca-cooks] RE: Period Ices/Sorbets/Cold Treats?

[E. Rain]

Well topically I just came across this while doing some work in the Tacuinum
Sanitatis (14th c. Italian health Handbook).


Here's Luisa Cogliati Arano's translation from the Liege MS:
Nix et glacies:	Snow and Ice
Nature: cold and Humid in the second degree.  Optimum: that which has been
formed from sweet water.  Usefulness: Improves the digestion.  Dangers:
causes coughing.  Neutralization of the dangers: By drinking it moderately.

the illustration is very vague & might be an iced over pond?


And here is Judith Spencer's Translation from the Vienna (Cerruti) MS:
Snow and Ice: Nix et Glacies
The nature of both these things is very cold and extremely moist; hence both
are suited only to those with ardent temperaments and only in the summer and
in southern regions.  Snow and ice, being things of winter and the north,
very rarely have any use to which they can be put unless one has the costly
opportunity of having them brought from their place of origin with all the
ingenious devices required.  They help to improve the digestion, if they
originate from good, fresh water.  They cause cesicationem to the joints and
also paralysis; they also cause coughing, for which reasons one should take
them only after drinking a moderate quantity of wine.

the illustration shows a man leading a mule next to a pit with what I assume
is snow in it.

______________________________________________________________________
warning dates on the calendar may be closer than they appear!

raghead at liripipe.com