humorl-theory-msg 6/22/08
Concepts of medieval Humoral Theory. References.
NOTE: See also the files: humorl-theory-bib, p-menus-msg, The-Saucebook-art, books-food-msg, cookbooks-bib, cookbooks-msg, merch-cookbks-msg, online-ckbks-msg.
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Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 20:16:32 -0600
From: vjarmstrong at aristotle.net (Valoise Armstrong)
Subject: Re: SC - Humoral theory
Ras wrote:
>Considering that our time period spans hundreds of years and we only have a
>handful of cookery manuscripts that have survived, the most we can extropolate
>is that the individual who wrote a particular manuscript felt that the humoral
>theory was valid. In our own time there has been dozens of different cookery
>books written that expound dozens of different medical theories. Is there any
>evidence that it was not the same in the MA? The uniqueness of the humoral
>theory would naturally make such maunuscripts immenately 'collectable' but
>would not neccessarily mean it was widely used.
I can't say much about English or French or Italian sources, but there does
seem to some attention paid to humoral theory in German books. I wish more
of this stuff was available in English. I won't say I've found the theory
in every German source I've looked at, but it definitely gets some
attention. I've put the bibliographic stuff at the end.
Meister Eberhard, who was a professioal cook in the 15th century devotes
more space to the humoral qualities of food and how to balance them than he
does to actual recipes. His cookbook is at the back of a doctoral
dissertation by Anna Feyl and isn't too hard to get through interlibrary
loan.
Kuchenmeysterey also has some information on humors, IIRC it's mostly
medicinal, what to add to wine and so forth to treat various conditions.
That book was something of a 15th and 16th century bestseller in Germany,
and continued to be printed into the 17th century. I found that one through
interlibrary loan.
There was a 1597 cookbook written by Anna Wecker, the widow of a physician,
that's supposed to have a lot about humors, but I haven't seen it myself.
Here's the book info.
Eberhard. _Kochbuch_. c. 15th C. In Anita Feyl, "Das Kochbuch Meister
Eberhards." Ph.D. diss., Albert-Ludwig University, 1963, 82-117.
_Kuchenmeysterey_. Passau: Johann, Petri, c. 1486. Edited by Rolf Ehnert.
Gšppingen: KŸmmerle Verlag, 1981.
Wecker, Anna. _Ein koestlich new Kochbuch_. Amberg, 1597. Facsimile reprit
with a commentary by J. Arndt. Munich, 1977.
Valoise
Date: Sun, 01 Nov 1998 10:06:12 -0500
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Re: Vegetarians, Balanced Meals, and Humors
Michelle wrote:
> I'm really interested in the humors concept - have you got any more
> information on it? From what I knew, it wasn't so much hot and cold or wet
> or dry as the colours it was - is this wrong?
>
> Michelle
Humors were seen by physicians and cooks up until the eighteenth century
or so as characteristics of all living things. People were still bled,
with or without leeches, until quite recently, I _think_ the early 19th
century in some places, and that practice is an offshoot of Galen's
medical influence as much as the idea, say, that sea fish like cod were
dangerously cold and moist, and so needed to be offset by baking in a
pasty and sauced with warm spices (a made-up example, and not
necessarily accurate, but you get the idea).
The concept of improving one's health by adjusting the balance of one's
humors through foods is quite old. Offhand, I don't have a birth date
for Galen, but he's credited with being the first physician to have
brought this type of medical theory to Europe, and the concepts were
later refined by Arab doctors like Abdul Hassim in the 13th and 14th
centuries. The idea of balancing humors to achieve good health has been
practiced by the Chinese for thousands of years, and is still in
extremely wide use there today. (Which is why I'm not allowed to
stir-fry beef with those fermented black soybeans at my house, which is
another story we needn't go into right now ; ) . )
For more information on the humoric medicine practiced in Europe in
period, see Mark Grant's recent translation of Anthimus's
early-6th-century letter to Theodoric, published as "On The Observance
of Foods", Terence Scully's "The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages", or
any of a variety of published versions of The Tacuinum Sanitatis,
originally by the aforementioned Abdul Hassim. I've got something called
"The Medieval Health Handbook", and another called, IIRC, "The Four
Seasons of The House of Cerruti", which last I assume to be based on a
single manuscript. The (A?) Tacuinum Sanitatis is essentially a
beautifully illustrated dictionary of foods, beverages, and other bodily
influences such as clothing, weather, and personal habits like sleep,
coitus, vomiting, etc., with a brief description of the humoric or
medical qualities of each. You might also locate Chiquart's "Du Fait de
Cuisine", and Platina's "De Honesta Voluptate et Valitudinae", both of
which are cookbooks which contain some medical advice as to which foods
go together. Then, of course, there is Andrew Boorde's 1542 English
work, The Dyetary of Helth, but this seems to be largely a rehashing of
Galen. What makes it interesting is that it is one of comparatively few
English works that discuss foods of the early-mid 16th century, and,
while not a cookbook, gives a pretty good idea of what was eaten in
England on that difficult-to-document cusp between the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance.
And Mistress Elaina wrote:
> Maybe our period counterparts were as culturally set on a humoraly
> balanced meal as we are on having one that includes the four food groups.
> Not that they wouldn't eat something that wasn't humoraly balanced,
> anymore than we will refuse to eat a pizza, but at the same time there's a
> strong, learned, cultural imperative when preparing a meal to fix a meat,
> a starch, a veggie, and a dessert. Perhaps the cultural imperative was
> just as strong in 1442 to eat or prepare a meal that balanced warm and
> cool foods with dry and moist ones.
Quite likely, although my own personal view is more that while [we] will
listen to our doctors on the subject of fat and cholesterol, and often,
in restaurants, eat meals prepared by effite spa chefs, we still will
occasionally (and in some cases almost exclusively) crave and eat a 1/2
pound hamburger (fried, of course!) topped with a couple of ounces of
cheddar cheese. Oddly enough, I can see someone like Charlemagne
enjoying something along those lines: he apparently was repeatedly
warned by his physicians to lay off the roast meats and stick to
boiled, and he apparently wasn't too pleased about it. I wonder whether
Anthimus' reach extended 300 years into the future to plague Charles'
dinner table?
Adamantius
¯stgardr, East
Date: Sat, 31 Oct 1998 12:36:10 -0600
From: allilyn at juno.com (LYN M PARKINSON)
Subject: Re: SC - hunoral theory-(meat days and fast days - MIXED?)
Ras, et al,
>> I don't feel that the neccessity of using those manuscripts
necessarily translates into an observation that the majority of medival
cooks paid any particular attention to then current medical advice.
Snip.
Is there evidence outside of Platina that would point to wide spread
use?<<
Yes, there is.
Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Boydell Press,
Woodbridge, UK. 1995.
ISBN 0 85115 611 8.
I did a class/artical on the the humoral bases of sauce composition, that
appearred in Serve It Forth, and Ras, I think I sent you a copy of that.
If, not I'll e-mail if you want.
Rawcliffe, Carole. Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England. Alan
Sutton Publishing Ltd., United Kingdom, 1995. ISBN 0 86299 598 1.
"Laymen with a smattering of formal education shared with clerks and
scholars a profound veneration for Hippocrates and Galen, the two
greatest stars in the medical firmament, whose names alone seemed to
guarantee a successful cure. Often in association with Socrates....they
were regularly invoked in fulsome language of the kind... (poem follows)"
Whole chapters on this humoral theory
Best, Michael R., editor THE ENGLISH HOUSEWIFE by Gervase Markham.
McGill- Queen's University Press, 1986.
"As in other popular medical works of the period, most of Markham's
remedies belong to a tradition of medicine which dates back to such
medical authorities of antiquity as Hippocrated, Dioscorides, Pliny, and
Galen. The recipes taken from the Banckes herbal (1525) certainly belong
to this tradition, and there are many others similar in kind to those
contained in late medieval medical manuscripts."
Before you say that this is medicine, not cooking, cooking WAS medicine
in our period. The cook, as Chiquart and others, consulted with the
physician attached to the household. Happy researching, Ras.
Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 07:40:08 GMT
From: kerric at pobox.alaska.net (Kerri Canepa)
Subject: Re: SC - Book recommendation
>I have been reading Scully's Medival Food, and would like to read more about
>the humors of food. Does anybody have a favorite book they would recommend?
>Scully lists his sources, but none in English that I have seen yet. I would
>like to be able to plan a menu, understanding the medievally logical
>progression of dishes. Also, to understand which spices and food
>preparations would most complement a particular food. Thanks in advance
>
>Eleanor d'Aubrecicourt
I was fascinated with Scully's book, particularly the realization that feasts
were not necessarily made up of odd and unusual dishes. I think the abundance
and variety was what made them impressive.
I'd be interested to share knowledge in this area since it appears we have the
same goals in mind. Right now the only resources I have which discuss food and
humors include an interesting book published for the sole intent of giving it to
tourists who were on a cruise. My apprentice gave it to me when she was getting
ready to move out of town. Called "The School of Salernum, Regimen Saitatis
Salerni" subtitled The English Version by Sir John Harington. It was published
by the a tourism board in Salerno Italy. It isn't even slightly a seriously
scholarly publication but it does claim to have been translated by Sir John
Harinton in 1607. It's in a form of rhymed verse and I'm not sure the entire
thing is translated. I know that only part of the original Latin is used. Still,
I have found it interesting. Here's a quote:
Although you may drinke often while you dine,
Yet after dinner touch not once the cup,
I know that some Physicions doe assigne
To take some liquor straight before they sup:
But whether this be meant by broth or wine,
A controversie 'tis not yeat tane up:
To close your stomack well, this order sutes,
Cheese after flesh, Nuts after fish or fruits,
Yet some have said, (beleeve them as you will)
One Nut doth good, two hurt, the third doth kill.
The original isn't dated and there's no leads on tracking down the original
document. This falls into the "interesting but tertiary source" material.
The other book I have is called "A Medieval Health Handbook" a book which has
plates from Taciunum Sanitatis. The color plates shown are fruits, vegetables,
and other foods and which humors they complement and which they do not. There
are other plates which show activities (like vomiting or sexual relations) with
the favorable and harmful humors. Both this book and the one above come from
Italy so I'm not sure how much of that information would have been used in the
rest of Europe. The plates of the Taciunum date from the late 14th, very early
15th c but I don't know when the text was written. Unfortunately, I can't place
my hands on my copy to give you publishing information - I think it's in a box
somewhere.
As for the connection of humors with menu preparation, I've only got the Scully
book which discusses it without going into a lot of detail. There are menus
aplenty in existence but I don't know if any of them have been examined in terms
of balancing the humors. I'd love to know if such a thing exists.
Kerri
Cedrin Etainnighean, OL
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 06:43:18 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Re: SC - Book recommendation
swbro at earthlink.net wrote:
> I have been reading Scully's Medival Food, and would like to read more about
> the humors of food. Does anybody have a favorite book they would recommend?
> Scully lists his sources, but none in English that I have seen yet. I would
> like to be able to plan a menu, understanding the medievally logical
> progression of dishes. Also, to understand which spices and food
> preparations would most complement a particular food. Thanks in advance
>
> Eleanor d'Aubrecicourt
Apart from Scully's own work, which is pretty exhaustive on the subject
when viewed all together, including intros to translated and edited
works of other authors, you might check for any of several available
forms of Tacuinum Sanitatis, generally published across Southern Europe
in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries (I _think_ those are correct
dates), giving medical information about various foods and other
environmental items that were thought to have an effect on the body,
ranging from wool clothing to garlic to coitus to anger to winter rooms.
Each is graded according to how warm or cool, moist or dry it is,
optimal conditions for use, possible dangers of use, and how to
neutralize dangers. So, for example, you might find a reference to
winter pears (I'm making this one up) being warm in the first degree,
moist in the second, but liable to cause windiness, which can be
counteracted by eating them in the afternoon with dry white wine. I'd be
willing to bet you've seen one or more such sources listed in Scully's
bibliographies, but as to their availability in English, take heart.
There are at least two published fairly recently: one is called "The
Four Seasons of the House of Cerruti", and the other, better one is
called "The Medieval Health Handbook".
You can also get Mark Grant's translation of Anthimus "On the Observance
of Foods" from Amazon.com, but be prepared to notice little or no
consistency between different medical opinions on a given item. This
might be due to geographical and chronological separation; Anthimus is
much earlier than Abdul Hassim, the physician to whom Tacuinum Sanitatis
is credited.
Then there's Andrew Boorde's Dietery of Helth (1542 C.E.), which is
mostly a rehashing of Galen on the same subject, and a couple of
specific cookery books which give some insight: Platina's "De Honesta
Voluptate et Valitudinae", and Maitre Chiquart D'Amiczo's "Du Fait de
Cuisine", both undoubtedly found in Scully's bibliography.
This is a fun subject... or you can probably tell I think so, anyway.
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 09:51:06 EDT
From: LrdRas at aol.com
Subject: Re: SC - Book recommendation
kerric at pobox.alaska.net writes:
<< There are menus
aplenty in existence but I don't know if any of them have been examined in
terms of balancing the humors. I'd love to know if such a thing exists.
Kerri >>
In the current middle ages, Master Adamantius appears to try and balance his
feasts a la the humor theory. Again I would recommend acquiring Platina. The
entire book is about the types of foods served and what not to serve, when to
serve them in the menu, their humoral properties and other health advice.
This is a period scholarly tome about the subject and is a real necessity for
the student of humoral medicine especially for the cook.
Ras
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 22:43:20 +0200
From: Thomas Gloning <Thomas.Gloning at germanistik.uni-giessen.de>
Subject: SC - Book recommendation (long)
1-School of Salerno and Regimina sanitatis
2-Scully on cooking with sauces
1 -- Kerri wrote: <<< (...) Called "The School of Salernum, Regimen
Sanitatis Salerni" <snip> The original isn't dated and there's no leads
on tracking down the original document. >>>
The school of Salerno was a medical school that flourished since the
11th century. The "Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum" is 13th century, the
text was widely spread and modified in the following centuries.
The standard edition of these versions is still: S. de Renzi (ed.):
Collectio Salernitana. 5 vol. Naples 1852-59.
<<< (...) "A Medieval Health Handbook" (...) Both this book and the one
above come from Italy so I'm not sure how much of that information would
have been used in the rest of Europe. (...) publishing information (...)
>>>
The use of such texts on health and nutrition was widespread all over
Europe:
There are a few _splendid_ manuscript copies of the Tacuin in Luettich,
Paris, Rom, Rouen, Vienna (the 'Hausbuch der Cerruti'). But these
manuscripts, which we have in our facsimiles, are shortened versions
from a longer latin text version which is extant in 17 manuscripts.
Later on, the Latin text (1531) and a German translation (1533) was
printed (the one, Norbert Hoeller, Vienna, beginns to transcribe).
There are many manuscripts and later printed texts of the 'Regimen
Salernitanum'. E.g., I have a German translation together with the latin
version from 1460 somewhere (facsimile) and a French-Latin version
printed 1743 (!) in the Netherlands. And there were other 'Regimina'.
Thus, the use of such texts on health and nutrition was widespread all
over Europe, and all the physicians were expected to know this system of
health and nutrition. Weiss-Amer's article in 'Du manuscrit a la table'
(69-80) could be an interesting reading for the English-only reader.
Publishing info: Tacuinum Sanitatis. The Medieval Health Handbook. New
York: George Braziller 1976 (quoted from the German version of the book;
there are several other facsimiles). See also: Judith Spencer, The Four
Seasons of the House of Cerruti, New York/Bicester,England 1984.
2 -- <<< (...) As for the connection of humors with menu preparation,
I've only got the Scully book which discusses it without going into a
lot of detail. (...) >>>
Not knowing Scully's 'Medieval food' (is it later than 'The art of
cookery in the Middle ages'?), I should like to mention an article about
(cooking with) sauces:
T. Scully, The 'opusculum de saporibus' of Magninus Mediolanensis.
In: Medium Aevum 54 (1985) 178-207.
(The latin text of the sauce book was published by Lynn Thorndike:
A mediaeval Sauce-book, In: Speculum, 9, 1934, 183-190.)
This is sort of a commentary to a medieval sauce book that specifies
which kind of sauce is appropriate to different kinds of food in respect
to their 'quality'. Should be very interesting for the cooking
practioneers.
Date: Sat, 31 Jul 1999 17:13:00 -0400
From: Nick Sasso <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: SC - references for humoral theory
I missed the crest of the discussion regarding the Humors, balancing
diet/menu and theory. There is one other secondary reference I would
offer to the body of work available:
Huggett, Jane (1995). _The Mirror of Health: Food, diet and medical
theory 1450-1660_. (Living History Reference Book Series) Stuart Press:
Bristol. ISBN 1 85804 076 0
She does a fine job in this pamphlet format publication (8.5 x 5.5
softcover like Complete Anachronist) of digesting the concepts for a
beginner's understanding and then goes on to discuss the qualities of
the various meats, fruits, vegetables, seasons, activities, and dietary
treatment of ills. By no means is this a low level book, just
understandable, and recommendable for those beginning the quest into
humors. Ms. Huggett uses the primary sources we mentioned earlier in
the thread, and a few more. I got mine from Acanthus Books, I believe,
and do not know if there be any more available.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 10:12:49 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Subject: Re: SC - Re: Substitutions (Raggum Fraggum)
> In a message dated 4/27/00 6:28:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time, allilyn at juno.com
> writes:
> > BTW, someone mentioned substituting pork for beef. Don't think that
> > would have happened: beef was hot and dry, pork was cold and moist. By
> > the time you changed the cooking methods and the liquids, seasonings and
> > sauces, you had a different recipe.
>
> Im curious to know, and see documentation regarding, how prevailant "humoral
> theory" was in medieval cuisine. Was it actually the guiding force that
> people seem to think it was? Or was it merely a case of "oh, yeah...keep in
> mind humoral theory if you want to..."? This is a serious question. I would
> like to know, and do not have the resources (yet) to make an assessment.
>
> Balthazar of Blackmoor
It probably wasn't a universally guiding force then any more than
considerations regarding cholesterol and food additives are now. Most of
us disobey our doctors now and then. Charlemagne did in the matter of
roast meats versus boiled.
On the other hand, Anthimus (who was himself, of course, a doctor),
Platina, Maynard Mayneri (whassisname, the Opusculum Saporibus guy) and
Chiquart all make specific references to humoral qualities of foods, and
Taillevent, in his sometimes rather peculiar-seeming combinations of
frying, parboiling, and roasting the same piece of meat, for example,
seems as if he probably was practicing a tradition of medically-informed
cookery, even if he didn't know that that's what he was doing. This
doesn't prove or even suggest it was universal, though. But it existed.
Another consideration is that sometimes personal and public tastes are
based on what I can only call medical _prejudices_. F'rinstance, one of
the yummy treats advocated by Dr. Atkins is pieces of cheddar cheese
wrapped completely in bacon and deep-fried. Its medical advisability can
be described simply by saying doctors disagree wildly, but I, for one,
find it repulsive, and a part of the problem is that somehow I've been
conditioned to _feel_ my arteries harden at even the thought of such a
food. I wonder if perhaps, as today, people in period did ignore the
advice of their doctors, but had their tastes in food shaped to some
extent by medical opinion anyway.
Adamantius
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 23:44:34 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Subject: SC - Re: Substitutions
> Galen was
> the physician whose writings were highly consulted on humoral theory.
> Haven't found a copy of him in English but probably haven't tried hard
> enough.
>
> Allison, allilyn at juno.com
Andrew Boorde's 16th-century "Dietary of Helth" is dedicated to Galen,
and is largely derived from his stuff, I gather.
You might wanna look at the various Tacuina Sanitatis, too. They don't
seem to refer to humors as humors per se, but the foundation of moist
versus dry, warm versus cold in various degrees and combinations, is as
well displayed in there as anywhere. It only lacks the names for the
various humors, which, actually, many sources leave out.
Adamantius
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2000 14:54:15 -0500
From: grizly at mindspring.com
Subject: Re: SC - Serving Temperature of Food
sca-cooks at ansteorra.org wrote:
> The thread on Boston Market got me thinking about re-heated chicken. Many of the feasts I have attended had prepared dishes re-heated and served, yet on what evidence is the food served hot? Chicken today is commonly served hot or cold. Why would people in peiod only serve it hot?
A quick run through Platina, yields this from Book IV.21;
"Besides, as in winter we more safely eat warm food, in summer, cold; as in summer, kid and chicken, acid and cold; in winter, squab, warm and dry; in autumn, quail and figpeckers; in spring, little birds taken from the nest after they have put forth feathers; in winter, thrushes and blackbirds."
Considering this in the light of humoral theory, a cook might want to serve "cold" foods hot to help off-set the humors. By the same logic, "hot" or "warm" foods might be served cold. >>>>>>>>>>>>
Another question that begs here is whether the ambient temperature of something will change the humoral quality. My readings suggest that it is not the actual temperature, but its intrinsic quality that must be balanced. Ergo, a cold moist ingredient quality would be balanced by an ingredient with hot dry quality. The method of cooking (braising, dry roasting, boiling) can also mediate the humoral quality by the humoral aspects of the cooking method.
What I'm looking at here is that all cooking is hot, therefore should be a wash. It is the moist vs. dry that can be mediated with the method. I would love more discussion on these issues Bear has brought up.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 01:14:59 -0400
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Subject: Subject: SC - four humours/food
From: Donna Kepner Ford <evfemia at mail.com>
> Does anyone have information they would like to pass on as to how the
> four humours, Sanguine, Choler, Phlegm, and Melancholy related to food
> in the middle ages.
>
> I'd like to know how different foods and various ways of preparing them
> may have led to a better balance in the four humours to a medieval
> person's mind.
There's a fair amouint of this in Scully's translation of Taillevent, as
well as his editon of Chiquart. Even more in "The Art of Cookery In The
Middle Ages", same author. I'm not quite sure, though, what you're
asking for. It's kind of an involved topic, but like most scientific
endeavors, it's based on at least some level of observation and
interpretation. The four humors, generally speaking, are based on human
constitutions with certain characteristics ranging from warm to cold and
from moist to dry. Foods also have these characteristics, and if
improperly consumed, can upset the balance of a person's humors. Foods
can also be used to correct this.
The humors, again, generally speaking -- opinions and interpretations
vary -- are described as melancholic, characterized as cool and dry,
phlegmatic, or cool and moist, choleric, hot and dry, and sanguine, or
hot and moist. Thinking about the modern definitions of these words, the
only one that doesn't immediately make sense to me is melancholic.
Foods, and also cooking methods, have their own characteristics as well.
For example, pepper might be seen as hot and dry (are _you_
surprised???), while something like vinegar is cool and moist, etc. So,
a properly balanced person might develop some kind of illness when
eating an excess of, say, roast pheasant, which, as a hot and dry food,
might engender unhealthful choleric humors in the patient. This is
prevented by parboiling and larding the bird before roasting, to prevent
it from becoming dry and excessively hot (boiling is both moistening
_and_ cooling, for some reason), and it can be served with a verjuice or
vinegar sauce to further counteract the choleric influence.
This is just an example of the kind of reasoning involved; the pheasant
example may or may not be accurately described, but as I recall it's
pretty close to the kind of reasoning applied by a lot of medieval
physicians to food and eating practices.
> As many of you have pointed out, there are countless, varying opinions
> today as to how foods should be balanced in our daily diet. (Someone
> mentioned the lovely snack promoted by Dr. Atkins of cheese wrapped in
> fried bacon. Most of us would probably cringe at the thought of all
> that cholesterol and fat.)
>
> I'm sure opinions varied as much in medieval times. But what was
> promoted by the different personalities of the time about this topic?
Apart from Anthimus, who seems to have had his own ideas, there actually
seems to have been a fair amount of agreement _among doctors_ in period
as to the various qualities of different foods. Most are largely
derivative of Galen's philosophies, including the Tacuina Sanitatis
manuscripts, which are derived from Middle Eastern originals, but then,
as I recall, so was Galen. Middle Eastern, that is.
I hope this helps. This is a difficult topic to cover in three or four
paragraphs, but then people spent their lives studying it, so you can
understand that, I'm sure. You might check one of the Scully books for
more information.
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 23:57:43 -0400
From: J C Ronsen <caleb at buffnet.net>
Subject: Re: SC - four humours/food
>Does anyone have information they would like to pass on as to how the
>four humours, Sanguine, Choler, Phlegm, and Melancholy related to food
>in the middle ages.
>
> I'd like to know how different foods and various ways of preparing them
>may have led to a better balance in the four humours to a medieval
>person's mind.
>
>As many of you have pointed out, there are countless, varying opinions
>today as to how foods should be balanced in our daily diet. (Someone
>mentioned the lovely snack promoted by Dr. Atkins of cheese wrapped in
>fried bacon. Most of us would probably cringe at the thought of all
>that cholesterol and fat.)
>
>I'm sure opinions varied as much in medieval times. But what was
>promoted by the different personalities of the time about this topic?
Actually, the four humors were: Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile and Black Bile.
To quote James Burke from his fantastic book, "Connections:" "These four
humors were associated with the material substances in the world around:
blood was associated with heat, phlegm with cold, yellow bile with dry, and
black bile with wet. Fire was hot, and so was summer. Water was cold, and
so was winter. Air and spring were dry, earth and autumn were wet. The
connection with astrology was close enough for much of the common-sense
medical knowledge in the Rule to give way to the mumbo-jumbo of the Humoral
Theory of treatment."
The Humoral theory gave advice such as "Dry, yellow bile makes a man
choleric and would best be cured with cold brewet." (I think this is a
fennel soup.) Conditions resulting from too little Black Bile can be cured
or prevented by anything that is grown in the ground, problems with too
much Blood can be fixed with fish (the cold of the fish canceled out the
heat in the blood) etc etc. Unfortunately the Humoral Theory, like
astrology, can be interpreted any way you wish.
The only source I have found that objectively talks about the Humoral
Theory in depth has been "How Greek Science Passed to the Arabs" by D. L.
O'leary. Everything else I've ran across have only devolted a brief space
to describing the theory.
ska: Lord Caleb Reynolds
mka: Caleb Ronsen
The Scum of AEthelmearc
Date: Fri, 12 May 2000 10:21:19 -0400
From: "Gaylin Walli" <gwalli at infoengine.com>
Subject: SC - humors and food manipulation
My darling husband was kind enough to buy me a copy of
Hildegard von Bingen's "Physica" for our anniversary
today. In the moment that I have had to glance at it, I
noticed on the last page an interested statement. Under the
"Metals" chapter, part VIII, she writes (in translation):
Steel (calybs) is very hot and is the very strongest form
of iron. It nearly represents the divinity of God, whence
the devil fleas and avoids it. if you suspect there is poison
in food of drink, secretly place a hot piece of steel in moist
food, such as broth or vegetable puree. If there is poison
present, the steel will weaken and disable it. If the food is
dry, such as meat, fish, or eggs, place a hot piece of steel
in wine and pour the wine over the food. If there is poison in
it, it will supress it, so that it does less harm to the person
who eats it.... (Throop, pg. 240)
Now granted I've not read the book other than this entry, but I
find the entry very interesting. This is an example of a very
specific manipulation of food based on the humoral qualities of
the dishes. If a manipulation such as this exists, granted it is
for reason of poison, it would not surprise me if other overt
manipulations were done. We see examples right now of our
recipes mixing ingredients so as to balance the humors (adding
something to make the garlic less sharp and hot, for example).
Were there others of which we're not aware? Mostly this one
entry intrigues me because it uses a non-food item to work
with the humoral balance of the food. I'd be interested in finding
other examples of this.
A curiosity, to be sure. Enjoy.
Jasmine
Iasmin de Cordoba
Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 17:46:21 EDT
From: allilyn at juno.com
Subject: Re: SC - Apicius, Galen, Platina
jasmine,
>> I want to see if I can trace the Arabic traditions back to the Greek
medicine in the Hippocratic corpus and in the work of Galen.<<
Don't know much about the Arabic, but the humoural theory does derive
from Galen. You want to read
Scully, Terence. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages. Boydell Press,
Woodbridge, UK. 1995.
He does some of the best research and teaching on that I have found. The
Sim books, in my just previous post, also have some writings on this.
Another good one is
Rawcliffe, Carole. Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England. Alan
Sutton Publishing, Ltd., United Kingdom, 1995. ISBN 0 86299 598 1.
Regards,
Allison, allilyn at juno.com
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 17:33:10 -0700
From: "Susan Browning" <swbro at earthlink.net>
Subject: SC - RE: Humoral Theory was Period, Peri-oid and OOP
An interesting note regarding how widespread humoral theory was. I had
dinner with an Iranian friend last night. She served a rice and lentil dish
with toasted almonds and raisons. We were talking about cooking later that
evening, and she mentioned that her grandmother still cooked according to
humoral theory (warm and cold), and even today some people still use it.
She knew enough about the theory to balance the rice dish - rice and lentils
being cold, raisons and almonds warm.
Eleanor
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 09:14:59 -0500
From: Elaine Koogler <ekoogler at chesapeake.net>
Subject: Re: SC - RE: Feast Report -- Son of Feast
I can also highly recommend The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages by Terence
Scully. He has a marvelous discussion of humoral theory...very thorough and, given Scully's credentials and the bibliography of the book, very accurate. You might also take a look at his Neapolitan Recipe Collection.
Kiri
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 16:28:17 -0000
From: Christina Nevin <cnevin at caci.co.uk>
Subject: SC - Humors
Rose asked
If anybody can recommend other works on humoral (am I spelling that
right?) theory, I'd love to know.
The best C.14 Italian (but based on an C.12th (?) Arabian original) source
is the "Tacuinum Sanitatis in Medicina".
There are a couple of translations - the one I have is "The Four Seasons of
the House of Cerruti" trans. Judith Spencer, (which shows all the pictures
fullscale) and there is also "The Medieval Health Handbook" which I think
has more of the translation (?).
It contains medical and humoral info about a multitude of foodstuffs, and
how/when/with what each should be eaten. There is also a very handy little
humoral food chart at the back of 4 Seasons, showing what grading of
warm/cool/moist/dry each item is.
Al Servizio Vostro, e del Sogno
Lucrezia
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Lady Lucrezia-Isabella di Freccia | mka Tina Nevin
Thamesreach Shire, The Isles, Drachenwald | London, UK
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 00:25:53 -0400
From: "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius" <adamantius at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here
To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Sunday, June 29, 2003, at 12:12 AM, Sue Clemenger wrote:
> Maire, again.
> I'm wondering (since I'm thinking of the summer/hot weather foods for my
> article) if medieval cooks, when considering the various humoral aspects
> of the foods they were cooking with, had seasonal variations. Did they,
> for instance, recommend cool/wet things during hot days? I've sure
> noticed, over the years in modern America, that my diet preferences vary
> greatly with the seasons, and it really doesn't have much to do with
> food availability. There are specific things I seem to intuitively
> "crave" depending on the season....
> Does this happen to anyone else, or am I completely weird about it? ;-D
> --maire, rambling on a hot saturday night, while she has a glass of
> rhubarb wine....
There are a couple of dishes recommended as being specifically
appropriate for summer (which I now cannot think of, of course). For
some reason, right or wrong, I STR these involving cold meats,
typically involving vinegar and parsley. Which also occur in that
15th-century English dish of boiled perch, served cold (possibly
deboned, but the language is not perfectly clear on that -- it says
something about lifting hem up, or some such, which is pretty vague --
it could refer to draining the fish from its cooking liquor or lifting
the meat off the spine, among other possibilities).
Offhand I'm not sure about the specific role of parsley, but it seems
to me that boiling a fish (a cool and moist food, made more so by
boiling), and then served cold, with vinegar (further cooling and
moistening it) as a summer dish (for the hot, dry months) is a pretty
clear statement on humoral medicine.
Let's see. Where's my copy of all those Tacuina Sanitatis?
Adamantius
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 00:26:19 -0400
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On 28 Jun 2003, at 22:12, Sue Clemenger wrote:
> Maire, again.
> I'm wondering (since I'm thinking of the summer/hot weather foods for my
> article) if medieval cooks, when considering the various humoral aspects
> of the foods they were cooking with, had seasonal variations. Did they,
> for instance, recommend cool/wet things during hot days?
Well, Platina says that in each of the four seasons, the corresponding
humour is dominant in the body. Therefore, one ought to adjust one's diet
from season to season. I don't know if this principle applies to the
daily weather.
Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 12:25:06 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here
To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On Sat, 28 Jun 2003, Sue Clemenger wrote:
> Maire, again.
> I'm wondering (since I'm thinking of the summer/hot weather foods for my
> article) if medieval cooks, when considering the various humoral aspects
> of the foods they were cooking with, had seasonal variations. Did they,
> for instance, recommend cool/wet things during hot days? I've sure
> noticed, over the years in modern America, that my diet preferences vary
> greatly with the seasons, and it really doesn't have much to do with
> food availability. There are specific things I seem to intuitively
> "crave" depending on the season....
> Does this happen to anyone else, or am I completely weird about it? ;-D
> --maire, rambling on a hot saturday night, while she has a glass of
> rhubarb wine....
Like Master A said, yes, there are recommendations for seasons. Since I am
within reach of my copies of the TS: a number of the entries have a
listing for /effects/. For instance, pasta is recommended for winter,
linen clothing for summer, snow and ice for summer, turnips for fall, rye
for winter, millet for summer.
More or less quoted:
Summer:warm in the 3rd degree, dry in the 2nd. It overcomes
superfluities and cold diseases. It slows digestion and increases bilious
humors. The dangers are neutralized with a humid diet in a cool
environment. It iks good for cold temperaments, for old people, and in
Northern regions.
Galen says to eat foods which are moist and cooling in the summer.
Myself, I tend to go for cold salads, fruits, raw vegetables, spicy
things. Pita and dips and olives and cheese is a favorite snack.
Margaret
Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 09:09:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here
To: <mooncat at in-tch.com>, Cooks within the SCA
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> I'm wondering (since I'm thinking of the summer/hot weather foods for my
> article) if medieval cooks, when considering the various humoral aspects
> of the foods they were cooking with, ad seasonal variations.
Yes, they did. The sauce book that Terence Scully wrote that article about
in Medium Aevum says to vary sauces depending on the season. There's also
suggestions for alleviating the dangers of certain foods/activities based
on the season or the weather in the Medieval Health Handbook.
[Ok, that's really sketchy and if you want more details I'll look it up
later...]
-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 09:10:04 -0400
From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] humoral theory references in music and lit et
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Another source to look at would be:
Ken Albala's Eating Right in the Renaissance.
(California Studies in Food and Culture, number 2.) Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press. 2002. Pp. ix, 315. $39.95.
Johnnae llyn Lewis
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2003 11:47:26 EDT
From: Devra at aol.com
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Hmoral theories - and commercial plug
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Have you checked Ken Albala's EATING RIGHT IN THE RENAISSANCE (ISBN
0-520-22947-9, Univ CA Press, $39.95) ? It is a discussion not only of the
humoral theories, but also of the various writings about it. Available, of
course, from Shamelss..er..Poison Pen Press.
Devra, shameless
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 21:13:04 -0500
From: "Robin Carroll-Mann" <rcmann4 at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re Humoural Theory
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
On 25 Mar 2004, at 13:42, Sherri wrote:
> I am doing a research paper on the Humoural Theory and I would really
> like to read Platino's opinion on this theory. Do you guys know of an
> on-line source for the De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine manuscript?
>
> Caillin
There's a facsimile of the 1530 edition online at:
http://alfama.sim.ucm.es/dioscorides/consulta_libro.asp?ref=X533841967
The navigation buttons are labelled in Spanish, but if you can read the Latin
of the manuscript, you shouldn't have much trouble with some basic
Spanish.
Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:30:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Terri Spencer <taracook at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] On the properties of food was RE: Welcome, a
birthday party
To Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Message-ID: <20040512063010.99726.qmail at web20412.mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
--- Phlip <phlip at 99main.com> wrote:
> I'm still working on figuring a lot of it out- would help
cnsiderably
> if someone could/would collate a list of foodstuffs with their
> humoral properties and the degrees of those properties, but it's not
> something I have time or inclination for.
All you have to do is ask!
I've posted an excel file in Yahooroups SCA-Cooks called
PropertiesOfFoods, with a list of foodstuffs and a survey of their
properties, degrees and comments from several voices of the times:
Galen - 2nd c. Greek doctor,
Tacuinem Sanitatis - based on 11th c. tables of ibn Botlan, physicia,
Hildegard Von Bingen - 1155? Benedictine abbess,
Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum - 13th c. Latin poem,
Platina - 1465, Vatican librarian, and
Gerard - 1597/1633 Master of Chirurgerie and Elizabethan gardener.
A secondary source is also included, The Miror of Health, Food, Diet
and Medical Theory 1450-1660, which summarizes Jane Huggett's research
into these and other sources.
Two caveats: This is a work in progress. I am still slogging thru
Galen's (many) words and collecting primary sources, and willadd to it
as time allows. And don't expect all these learned opinions to agree.
That's part of the fun!
For those who haven't delved far into humoral theory, here is a summary
from classes/papers (yes, I've been prea...teaching this a while :)
The Ancint Greeks saw four elements in all things; earth, air, fire
and water. The writings attributed to Hippocrates of Cos (4th c. B.C.)
classified foods and herbs by their corresponding qualities; hot, cold,
dry or moist. Pedanius Dioscorides (60 A.D.) categrized plants,
animals and minerals and their uses as remedies in De Materia Medica,
which became a primary medical text for 1500 years, foundation of
countless herbals. Claudius Galenus (130 A.D.), physician to Marcus
Aurelius, built upon these elements o codify the theory of humors.
His work was the standard for Roman, Arab and European physicians
throughout our period of study.
The humors, or body fluids, are blood, black bile, choler (yellow
bile), and phlegm. Each person has a dominant humor or humos which
determine their constitution, complexion, or temperament. These are:
sanguine, melancholic, choleric, or phlegmatic.
Descriptions of each are online at:
http://www.godecookery.com/regimen/regimen.htm (starts at pg 14)
&/or
http://user.icx.net/~rchmond/rsr/ajax/harington.html (starts at 132)
The balance of humors is influenced by air, exercise, sleep, excretions
and passions. Age and seasons play their part. Monastic healers also
recognize the opposing powers of sin and prayer. But by far the most
important key to even humors and good health is diet, tailored to oneÕs
temperament and current condition. The goal is harmonious humors, not
a balanced diet. So one should avoid foods with the same qualities as
their prevailing humor(s), and eat foods of opposing natures.
Qualities were measured in four degrees, 1 to 4, 4 the strongest.
Daily food and drink were of the 1st or 2nd degree. Medicines were 2nd
or 3rd degree, including strong herbs and spices. Substances of 4th
degree were almost dangerous, and were taken in small doses and
tempered with mild or opposing foods or spices (such as hot/dry mustard
tempered with cooling vinegar).
Foods are sorted by their effect on digestion, an important
consideration because undigested food decays, causing noxious vapors,
bad humors and illness. The surface nature of a food is sometimes a
good indicator of its properties. Others are texture, natural
environment, or peak season.
Thus, fish and fruits are cold and damp, and they reduce the heat of
digestion and slow it down. Berries and beans are cold and dry, and
bind the stomach or produce wind. Fats and root vegetables are warm
and damp, the best qualities for food, in moderation. Bread and rice,
basic foods for everyone, are warm and dry, easily dgested, and
nourishing to all constitutions. Hot, dry spices are added to other
foods to aid digestion.
To address the onion with meat question - onions are generally
considered hot & dry to the 4th degree, strong medicine. Coarse,
phlegmatic peasants could eat them untreated and work off the excess
humors, but more delicate noble constitutions would be harmed. They
might be used in small quantities to heat/spice a cold meat like beef.
We probably over-use them when redacting medieval recipes to modern tastes. A more humoral use would be similar to that of leeks in one of
my favorite veggie dishes, Funges from Forme of Curye:
Take Funges and pare hem clene and dyce hem. take leke and shred hym
small and do hym to seeP in gode broth. color it with safrun and do
Perinne powdour fort.
The 4th degree hot/dry leeks are balanced by 4th degree cold/moist
mushrooms, saffron and strong spices add a bit of gentle heat to stoke
the digestive furnace. A tasty and balanced dish for a healthy
constitution.
Tara
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2004 13:00:58 -0500
From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beans, beans, the musical fruit....
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
And just for fun, I will point out that there is a question of the position
of "bunchum" or "bunn" (coffee) in the humoral hierarchy, att least
according to Abu Ali Al-Hussain Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (Avicenna), "As to the
choice thereof, that of a lemon color, light, and of a good smell, is the
best; the white and the heavy is naught. It is hot and dry in the first
degree, and, according to others, cold in the first degree. It fortifies
the members, it cleans the skin, and dries up the humidities that are under
it, and gives an excellent smell to all the body."
Bear
Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 10:48:06 -0400
From: Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] weather fronts and the humors
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
>> Obligatory Food-ish Question: I'm assuming that middle-ages me, if
>> educated in these things, would have seen my physical reactions to storm
>> fronts/weather changes as an imbalance in my humors? Would it have been
>> seen as too much of the moist/cold? Not enough? Anyone care to expound
>> on what sort of foods or herbs would have been recommended? Modern-me
>> does Pretty Good with her NSAIDS, but wonders how similar things were
>> handled in the 14th century....
>
> Interesting question. But would they have tried to put a humorial
> aspect on this at all? I thought the theory of the humors was balance
> within the individual. Just as you can see the storm fronts come
> through and relate various effects to them, wouldn't they? I would more
> believe them commenting that folks with certain humorial balances were
> more (or less) effected by the weather, rather than that the weather
> affected someone's humorial balance.
Yes, they would see how a particular person was affected by changes in
the outside world (take a look at the Tacunium Santitanis) and adjust
diet thereby. That's what all the stuff about directions of winds,
seasons, etc. is about.
--
-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2006 14:10:02 -0800
From: "Nick Sasso" <grizly at mindspring.com>
Subject: Humors & end of meals ( was RE: [Sca-cooks] cordials)
To: <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net>, "'Cooks within the SCA'"
<sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
> -----Original Message-----
>> I don't have time to look it up, but I recall reading that drinking
>> (pretty much anything) after meals would interfere with digestion.
>
> Well... (sez Jadwiga, catching up with her email)
> There are a number of recipes for drinks to be taken after meals,
> including hypocras; the idea is that wine and spices would help the
> digestion. Perhaps the laurel in question was thinking of
> spiced wines as cordials?
Consider that one generally wants to "close the stomach" after a meal. The
stomach uses the food to produce the four homours, and needs to close after
a meal to percolate, so to speak. Food and drink that will close the
stomach, like cheeses, would be desirable at the end of a meal to maximize
the production of good, strong humors and minimize the by-products and weak
humor production. Herbs and wines that are specifically to close the
system are what you want.
I lack good references at hand to give examples, though.
niccolo difrancesco
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2006 12:50:16 +0000
From: iasmin at comcast.net
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Humors & end of meals
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Consider that one generally wants to "close the stomach" after a
> meal. the[...] Food and drink that will close the
> stomach, like cheeses, would be desirable at the end of a meal [....]
> I lack good references at hand to give examples, though.
Platina's entries on cheese are a great place to start:
"Aged cheese is difficult to digest, of little nutriment, not good
for the stomach or belly, and produces bile, gout, pleurisy, sand
grains, and stones. They say a small amount, whatever you want, taken
after a meal, when is seals the opening of the stomach, both takes
away the squeamishness of fatty dishes and benefits the digestion and
head."
Platina. (c. 1465/1998). De honesta voluptate et valetudine (On Right
Pleasure and Good Health). Mary Ella Milham, translator. Tempe,
Arizona: Arizona Board of Regents for Arizona State University. ISBN:
0866982086.
Iasmin
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:20:14 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Foods for hot weather....
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Speaking of humors I have sitting here but not read yet a copy of
Passions and Tempers. A History of the Humours by Nora Arikha.
It's looks rather interesting and there is so little on the topic in
terms of a modern history.
Here's the NYT review
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/books/review/Nuland.html?
ex=1184904000&en=48288da4785d38ff&ei=5070
Johnnae
<the end>