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.
Gppingen: Kmmerle 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