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. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ 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. Göppingen: Kümmerle 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 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 Østgardr, 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 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 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" 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 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 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 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 Subject: Subject: SC - four humours/food From: Donna Kepner Ford > 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 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" 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" 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 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 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here To: Cooks within the SCA 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here To: mooncat at in-tch.com, Cooks within the SCA 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: Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Summer is Here To: , Cooks within the SCA > 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] humoral theory references in music and lit et To: Cooks within the SCA 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Re Humoural Theory To: Cooks within the SCA 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 Subject: [Sca-cooks] On the properties of food was RE: Welcome, a birthday party To Cooks within the SCA Message-ID: <20040512063010.99726.qmail at web20412.mail.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii --- Phlip 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 one's 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" Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Beans, beans, the musical fruit.... To: "Cooks within the SCA" 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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] weather fronts and the humors To: Cooks within the SCA >> 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" Subject: Humors & end of meals ( was RE: [Sca-cooks] cordials) To: , "'Cooks within the SCA'" > -----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 Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Foods for hot weather.... To: Cooks within the SCA 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 Edited by Mark S. Harris humorl-theory-msg Page 21 of 21