[Sca-cooks] Some general info on Apicius for the newcomers

[Anne duBosc]

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A little information on Apicius for newcomers.

The man known as M. Gavius Apicius, was known in Classical Roman times. He lived sometime in the first century, A.D. He was famed for his
gastronomy, and is known to have written at least two books, one on
general cookery, and one on sauces. We have mention of him and his works in other manuscript of the time.  There are no known copies of
these two works.

However, sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century, an anonymous editor produced a manuscript that was purported to be taken from these two works, but appears rather to be selections from three or four authors, including Apicius. This manuscript has also been lost. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, Apicius became rather a fad in Italy, and we have several extant manuscripts from that period which were said to be copies of this second work.

In 1936, an American professional cook, J.D. Vehling published a translation of one of these manuscripts.  It is rather flawed, in that Vehling was often more interested in producing what seemed to him a more palatable recipe than in actually translating the Latin.
In 1958, Flowers and Rosenbaum, two women culinary historians,
studied several of these Medieval manuscripts and published an
English Language translation called "The Roman Cookery Book."  I have found this translation much more dependable than the Vehling work.

These are the first two known English Language translations of Apicius.  There were several others at that time in other languages, and there have been several more recent ones in English that I have not yet had the opportunity to read.



Mordonna


Lady Anne du Bosc
Known as Mordonna The Cook
Atenveldt, Atenveldt
mundanely Pat Griffin
Phoenix, AZ


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