[Sca-cooks] Differin translations of Apicius

[Mark S. Harris]

Master Cariadoc replied to me with:
> > I think though, that it would be very nice to have these same
> >sections quoted from another of the Apicius translators. We are
> > arguing about Vehling's quality of translation yet no one has looked
> > up and posted, as far as I've seen so far, anybody else's
> > translations of these same sections.
>
> I did so in a post yesterday.

Yes, you did. Thank you. I'm afraid that with the sudden large delunge 
of digests these past few days, that I've been unable to read all of 
them before commenting on some, or asking questions about them. I'm 
still not up to today's copies. :-)

If I create a file on the subject of medieval food adulteration, I will 
be including your message and commentary on this. Perhaps other 
information supporting food adulteration in the Middle Ages will appear 
in the future. Perhaps not.

> In one case, the "odor" is an invention of Vehling's. The only one
> that's clearly about fixing food that has gone bad is the honey
> quote, although the liquamen one could be about that.

So, while we may be able to discard some of the quotes as not 
supporting food adulteration, some others may or may not be support for 
it. Even if they aren't, I still may save them and the commentary for 
when folks wonder about these quoted sections in the future.

> Vehling has
> been discussed here before--his "translation" really is close to
> worthless, since he puts in things that aren't there, and his
> redactions are perhaps worse.

That is why I wanted, and am happy to see, your quotes of the 
translations of these sections by others. However, even in your 
message, for some of Vehling's translations you showed and commented 
that they were saying essentially the same as the other translations. 
So, not all of his translations are wrong. But it certainly seems you 
have to be careful with them and other translations may be more 
trustworthy.

Even "Fabulous Feasts" has some good sections. You just have to figure 
out which to pay attention to and which to ignore.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****