Medieval Dietetics
Food and Drink in "Regimen Sanitatis</I> Literature from 800 to 1400
Published on 1. May 1995
Book
Paperback/Softback
231 pages
978-3-631-48871-3 (ISBN)
Description
The book explores the connection between cooking and preventive medicine by centering on the food and drink section, cibus et potus, in 23 medieval Latin and German regimina sanitatis. A brief history of the four-humor theory and the six non-naturals is followed by the analysis of each regimen, including information on the text, the role of cibus et potus within the non-naturals, its contents (general guidelines on nutrition, dietetic lists of foodstuffs, and culinary recipes), use of the gradus-system, as well as sources and dependencies with other regimina. In the conclusion the results are arranged in chart-form; an appendix contains the transcription of a 15th-century German translation of Anthimus' «De observatione ciborum.»
Reviews / Votes
«La bibliographie, qui distingue éditions et traités anciens et études modernes, achève de conférer à cet ouvrage tout son intérêt, faisant de celui-ci un excellent compendium des sources relatives à la diététique médiévale. A l'avenir, on ne pourra plus ignorer ce travail, qui semble, à vrai dire, l'annonce de recherches ultérieures de l'auteur.» (Alain Touwaide, Revue d'Histoire de la Pharmacie)More details
Person
The Author: Melitta Weiss Adamson is Assistant Professor of German and History of Medicine at The University of Western Ontario, Canada. She has published articles on the history of food, preventive medicine, pregnancy, Hildegard von Bingen, Wittenwiler, and medieval parody, and is the editor of Food in the Middle Ages: A Book of Essays (Garland).