Abstract
A normal feature of French food recipe collections of the late Middle Ages is a section devoted to dishes that would be appropriate for the sick. The recipes contained in this section are not prescriptions; that is, they are not for preparations intended therapeutically for specific illnesses. There do, of course, exist treatises outlining specific foods to be offered to persons suffering particular ailments: a notable illustration of this type of culinary therapy is contained in treatises on the plague and on dietary precautions that are necessary in time of plague.1 There exist as well outlines of particular diets set out for individuals, presumably at the request of each individual to his physician. The dishes prescribed in these consilia are determined solely and strictly by the peculiar temperament of the individual for whom they are prescribed.2
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
A typical assortment of therapeutic dishes is set out in ch.9, “De preservatione ab epydimia, indicatione sumpta ex hiis que comeduntur et bibuntur, et ex aliis rebus non naturalibus”, of the Libellus de preservatione ab epydimia of Magninus Mediolanensis: Maino de’Maineri ed il suo libellus de preservatione ab epydimia. Codice del 1360 conservato nell’Archivio di stato di Modena, ed. Riccardo Simonini (Modena 1923). See also the “short list” that a professional poet such as Deschamps is able to offer of advisable foods during the plague: Oeuvres complètes de Eustache Deschamps, ed. Queux de Saint-Hilaire and Gaston Raynaud, 11 vols (Paris 1878–1903), VIII, 139–40, Ballade 1452. The Summula Musandini (“Incipit summula de preparatione ciborurn et potuum infirmonun, secundum Musandinum”) contains an extensive listing of foods proper for a wide variety of specific illnesses: Collectio Salernitana, ossia Storia della scuola medica de Salerno, ed. Salvatore de Renzi, 5 vols (Naples 1852–59), V, 254–68.
One such dietary is that designed for the bilious (i.e. warm and dry) temperament of a certain Sigismond Dursperger in the third quarter of the 15th century. See Ernest Wickersheimer, “Le Régime de santé de Jean Chanczelperger, bachelier en médecine de l’Université de Bologne (XVe siècle)”, Janus 25 (1921) 245–50.
Chiquart’s “On Cookery”: A Fifteenth-Century Savoyard Culinary Treatise, ed. and trans. Terence Scully (New York etc. 1986), p. 97. The original text is as follows: “Et quar en une telle noble, grande et notable feste comme dessus est devisé es quelles y soient tant grandes compaignies de grans nobles et vaillans seigneurs comme dessus est nommé, merveille est se il n’y a de fellés ou acterves de personnes, ou detenuz d’aucunes infirmités et maladies. Pourtant moy, Chyquart — premierement reservé les ordonnances et dictés des nobles, bons et vaillans seigneurs medicins — veuil enseigner et deviser selon mon petit entendement a faire et apprester aucunes viandes assés bonnes et confortatives pour malades. Nota pro infirmis.…”, Terence Scully, “Du fait de cuisine par Maistre Chiquart, 1420”, Vallesia 40 (1985) 101–231 at 187. The anonymous Tractatus de modo preparandi et condiendi omnia cibaria has a similar preface to its sec. 4, devoted entirely to sickdishes: “Modo narrandum est de condimentis delicatis dominorum [my italics], ad naturam confortandam et appetitum provocandum”, Marianne Mulon, “Deux traités inédits d’art culinaire”, Bulletin philologique et historique jusqu’ à 1610 du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques 1968 (Paris 1971), p. 391.
The Viandier of Taillevent: An Edition of All Extant Manuscripts, ed. Terence Scully (Ottawa 1988). The section of dishes for the sick is on pp. 159–68, and an English translation of the recipes on pp. 290–91.
Le Menagier de Paris: A Critical Edition, ed. Georgine E. Brereton and Janet M. Ferrier (Oxford 1981). The Buvrages pour malades and Potages pour malades are found on pp. 263–67.
In a medico-alchemical book, the Livre des deux paroles, dedicated to Chiquart’s employer, Amadeus VIII, first duke of Savoy, the physician Guillaume Fabri de Die describes an electuary called “Diamargariton” that includes gold, hyacinth, pearls, sapphires, emeralds, amber, and coral. See C.G. Carbonelli, Come vissero i primi conti di Savoia da Umberto Blancamano ad Amedeo VIII (Milan 1931).
On the use of precious metals and gemstones in therapeutic preparations, see also Luke E. Demaitre, Doctor Bernard de Gordon: Professor and Practitioner (Toronto 1980), p. 89;
Anna Maria Nada Patrone, “Trattati medici, diete, e regimi alimentari in ambito pedemontano alla fine del medio evo”, Archeologia medievale 8 (1981) 369–92;
Alberico Benedicenti, Malati, medici, et farmacisti: Storia dei rimedi traverso i secoli e delle teorie che ne spiegano l’azione sull’organismo, 2 vols (Milan 1924–25), I, 557–69.
Le Régime du corps de maître Aldebrandin de Sienne, texte français du XIII e siècle, ed. Louis Landouzy and Roger Pépin (Paris 1911), pp. 128–29.
This understanding of health is fundamental to medical theory in the Middle Ages and can be found defined in most medical treatises of the time. E.g. see the Liber canonis of Avicenna, where in bk I, pt 2, thesis 2, summa 1, ch. 15 (“De his que accidunt ex eis que comeduntur et bibuntur”), the “degrees” of the humoral properties of foodstuffs are defined, and the shades of distinction between their medical and nutritive values are set out (facs. repr. of the Venice 1507 edn [Hildesheim 1964], fols 33v–34v); or Arnaldus de Villanova, Aphorismi de gradibus, ed. Michael R. McVaugh, Arnaldi de Villanova opera medica omnia 3 (Barcelona 1975).
The Medieval Health Handbook Tacuinum sanitatis, ed. Luis a Cogliati Arano (New York 1976); MS of Liège, black and white pl. 62, “Gambari”, and MS of Paris, black and white pl. 162, “Cambari”.
On the changing importance of sugar in food preparation across Europe at this time, see Bruno Laurioux, “Spices in the Medieval Diet: A New Approach”, Food and Foodways 1 (1985) 43–76; “Modes culinaires et mutations du goût à la fin du moyen-âge”, Artes mechanicae en Europe médiévale, Actes du Colloque du 15 octobre 1987, Archives et bibliothèques de Belgique, numéro spéciale 34 (Brussels 1989).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1992 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scully, T. (1992). The Sickdish in Early French Recipe Collections. In: Campbell, S., Hall, B., Klausner, D. (eds) Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21882-0_9
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-21884-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-21882-0
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)