On the Observance of Foods by CK1 and Anthimus

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  • ISBN 10 0907325750
  • ISBN 13 9780907325758
  • Published Nov 20 1996
  • Format Paperback
  • Page Count 140
  • Language English
  • Countries United Kingdom
  • Publisher Prospect Books
  • Imprint Prospect Books

Publishers Text

Anthimus was a Greek doctor condemned by the Emperor of Constantinople to a life of exile at the court of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, barbarian ruler of Italy at the beginning of the 6th century AD. In the course of his life in Ravenna he was sent as ambassador to the King of the Franks and, perhaps as a sweetener to his fierce yet royal host, wrote a letter about foods - which were good for you, which were bad, and in some cases how to cook and serve them. It may reasonably be called the first French cookery book. This edition has a general historical introduction which aims to correct various errors of fact in earlier editions, a Latin text based on the "editio princeps" of 1864, a modern English translation, and a detailed commentary on the work itself, with many cross-references to classical medical treatises, the literature of classical cookery and modern scholarship insofar as it knows anything of the food and cookery of the early Merovingian Franks. The work by Anthimus has long been studied for the light it sheds on the linguistic transition from classical to medieval Latin, but rarely has it been treated for what it was - a cookery and medical treatise. It shows cooking on the cusp between the bread-, vegetable- and oil-based cuisine of the Mediterranean and the meat-dominated cookery of the northern forests.

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