[Sca-cooks] Charlemagne and the doctors

[Claire Clarke]

Message: 4
Date: Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:21:29 -0800
From: "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at jeffnet.org>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Charlemagne and the doctors
Message-ID: <4B937019.8000103 at jeffnet.org>
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Terry Decker wrote:
> Here's a little quote from Einhard.
>
> Bear
>
> "His health was good until four years before he died, when he suffered 
> from constant fevers.  Toward the very end he also became lame in one 
> foot.  Even then he trusted his own judgment rather than the advice of 
> his physicians, whom he almost loathed, since they urged him to stop 
> eating roast meat, which he liked, and to start eating boiled meat."
>
> Einhard, The Life of Charlemagne, chapter 22.
>
Yes- that's the quote that got me started on the whole thing of 
wondering why his doctors insisted on boiled meats. (As it turns out, no 
one tells the emperor what to do!) Have a brand-new copy of Anthimus 
that I'm starting in on. Might get some illumination there. :-)

'Lainie

-- 
Well, as someone noted earlier in this discussion, roasting meat (especially
beef) makes it more hot and dry, according to the theory of the humours. The
doctors probably thought this was contributing to the frequent fevers
Charlemagne was suffering. I can't imagine that eating boiled meat instead
of roasted meat would have as much impact on reducing fever as say eating
lettuce (considered cold and moist, funnily enough), but perhaps the doctors
were anticipating how poorly such a suggestion would go down with their
patient (who doesn't sound like he was much of a herbivore)....

Angharad