[Sca-cooks] Magninus Mediolanensis and late medieval Iro-Scottish medicine and diet

[emilio szabo]

My question was:

<< Does it follow from these findings [i.e. the abstract to the article of 
Caroline Proctor] 

that the work of Magninus/Maino is a source for late medieval  
Irish or Scottish cuisine and diet? >>


One might see the usefulness of the article for the study of food in Scotland
and Ireland in three points.


1. It is said and partially shown that the work of Maino/Magninus Mediolanensis
contains a lot of dietetic advice and advice how to cook certain foodstuffs
for different people. However, this advice is not quoted in the article 
extensively.


"Much of this text is devoted to the correct
manipulation of diet, discussing a lengthy series of foodstuffs and offering
his readers information on their qualities, uses and how best to
consume them."


"Eels and lampreys were one of
the key provisions listed for the manor at Cardross where Bruce seems to
have based himself after 1326, despite the warnings we can only imagine
that Maino might have given him. Maino seems to have been rather
pragmatic in his acceptance that natural gluttony tended to outweigh his
patients’ desire for good health, and so, in each of his dietary works, he
gave advice on how to prepare the lamprey in such a way that it would
cause the least damage to those who had a taste for it. He suggested that
these cooking methods would have been commonplace in the great
households of Europe, amongst which we must presume he would have
ranked the Scottish royal court."



2. The author suggests a useful method: to compare the dietetic advice given
in the medical work of Magninus with the information on food given in the 
Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, e.g.:

J. Stuart and G. Burnett (eds), Rotuli Scaccarii Regum Scotorum: the Exchequer 
Rolls of Scotland,
i (Edinburgh, 1878)



3. It is shown that there was or "seems to have been" a constant interest in / 
influence of the work of Magninus until
well into the 15th century both in Scotland and in Ireland.


"Closer analysis of the evidence seems instead to bring medical practice
in line with the European context for medieval Scotland so strongly
evoked by recent scholarship."


"It appears then that Maino’s brand of medicine may have held influence
in Scotland even a century and a half after his time there. The
genre of preventive or dietary medicine exemplified by the Regimen
sanitatis seems to have been of interest to Scottish scribes, physicians
and book-collectors, and in this manuscript Maino’s work is praised
especially generously."


"It is perhaps not surprising that, remembering the strong connections
between medical practitioners in Gaelic Scotland and Ireland (as illustrated
by the Beaton family), there should also be Irish copies of Maino’s
Regimen sanitatis. The two manuscripts both contain the text translated
into Irish."



E.