[Sca-cooks] Apicius

[johnna holloway]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
[regarding Apicius]
> In reading "Mediterranean Cuisine" by Barbara Santich this morning, I
> noted that she says "It was not until the fifteenth century that the
> Roman manuscripts attributed to Apicius or the even earlier
> manuscripts compiled by Athenaeus around 200 AD, were rediscovered
> and appreciated." If this is true, then I wonder just how much influeance these
> volumes could have had on medieval cooking.
------------
This is an area that I started gathering material on sometime
back. From some preliminary reading, I would have to question
that Apicius had much to do with early surviving recipes from
the Middle Ages, except in as much as they reflect a continuing
tradition of Roman literature and culinary traditions. A sauce is still
a sauce, the foods are often the same, etc. We can find the connections
now because we have access to the later and earlier texts, but it
is apparent that the cooks in the 11th-13th centuries did not have this
access to what would have been a rare surviving Latin manuscript.

In the article "A Fifteenth-Century History of Latin Literature"
Dorothy M. Robathan in Speculum, Vol. 7, No. 2. (Apr., 1932),
pp. 239-248, examined the work of Sicco Polenton who in 1437
concluded his work on his Scriptorium which is the first history
of Latin Literature. It is apparent that Apicius was unknown in the
early 15th century because Polenton never mentioned him. Robathan
placed him in a list of "Works Known to Us but Unknown to Polenton."
Apicius's material was found after Sicco's list was completed.
Printed editions of Apicius begin to appear in the late 1400's.
An incomplete and very quick search turns up editions printed in
 1490, 1498, 1500, 1503, and 1541.

The scholar who has done the most work with Apicius in this regard is
Professor Mary Ella Milham. (yes, the woman who also is responsible for
the new editions of Platina). She is the author of several papers on the
subject and the text Apicii decem libri qvi dicvntvr "De re coqvinaria"
et excerpta a Vinidario conscripta Leipzig : Teubner,1969
XVI, 116 S. p.Latin. Series: Bibliotheca scriptorvm Graecorvm et
Romanorvm
Tevbneriana or Bibliotheca scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum
Teubneriana.

A paper on the 18th century reaction to Apicius can be found in the
volume
Medieval Food and Drink, edited by Mary-Jo Arn. ACTA, vol.xxi, 1995.
It's
titled: "The Progeny of Apicius: Antiquarian Responses To Historical
Cookery" by George R. Keiser. pp.67-83.

Hope this helps.

Johnna Holloway  Johnnae llyn Lewis