Antiquitates culinariae, or, curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the old English / with a preliminary discourse, notes and illustrations by Richard Warner.

Date:
1791
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Antiquitates culinariae, or, curious tracts relating to the culinary affairs of the old English / with a preliminary discourse, notes and illustrations by Richard Warner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    But no name appears to have been more famous at Rome, among the epi- cures of that luxurious city, than the name of Apicius. There were three Apicii, who flourifhed, if I may fo call it, at different periods. The fir ft lived before Rome had loft her freedom ; the fecond under the emperor Auguftus, and the third under Trajan ||. The fecond Apicius, however, appears to have been, without competition, the moft ingenious epicure of the three. He reduced eating to a fyftem, and gave ledtures at Rome, on the various methods of pleafing the palate, and preparing de- licacies for the table *. According to the teftimony of Pliny, he was remarkably fkilful in the pre- paration of ragouts •j-: and the Apician receipt for preferving oyjiers, which he contrived to fend frefh five hundred leagues, was long confidered, as an inefti- mable piece of culinary knowledge J. The fums expended by Apicius, in the indulgence of his palate, were enor- mous. When his affairs became embarraffed, in confequence of his exceffes, he was driven to the infpedtion of his accounts; and findings that of his large poffeflions, only feventy or eighty thoufandpounds remained § ; in defpair at being obliged to difcontinue his ufual mode of living, he concluded his many delicious repafts, with a dofe of poifon ||. A curious book has reached our times, relative to the Roman art of cookery; the larger part of which, confifts of receipts, under the name of Apicius. There are doubts among the learned, whether this is a compilation, by that Apicius, of whom I have been fpeaking. Dr. Lifter, the lateft editor of the work, fuppofes it rather to have been compiled by fome other perfon, under the name of Ccelius Apicius, becaufe the culinary art, was fo greatly indebted, to that famous epicure. Be that however as it may, the book is confeffed by all to be genuine, and at leaft as old, as the later emperors; and as fuch, may be confidered as the moft au- thentic, and curious repertory of Roman culinary knowledge, now exifting. That the Englifli reader may be enabled to form fome idea of the heterogeneous meffes, with || In this enumeration of the Apicii, I follow Athenaeus, Monf. Bayle, and other critics; tho Dr. Lifter doubts whether there were more than two epicures of that name, “ nam de tertio fub Trajano hsereo,” fays he. Praef. p. 4. * Seneca de Vit. Beat. L. 95. That Apicius confidered trouble and difficulties as nothing, when the indulgence of his palate was the end propofed, will appear from the following anecdote, which we have in Athenaus. While flaying at Minturna in Campania, he eat a delicate fpecies of lobjier, which he reliffied exceedingly ; and being informed, that on the coaft of Africa the fame fliell filh were found of uncommon mag- nitude ; he inftantiy fet fail for the fpot, though the voyage was attended with great inconveniences. When he arrived there, the filhermen brought him the largeft they could procure, but he, finding they were much fmaller than he had imagined them to be, inftantiy hoifted fail in rage and difappointment, and never once fet his foot on lhore. Athenasus Lib. i. p. 7. f Plin. Lib. viii. c. 57. et aliis locis. % Athenams Lib. i. p. 7. § Arbuthnot on ancient coins p. 116. The fums expended by Apicius in his kitchen, amounted to eight hundred and feven thoufand, two hundred and ninety-one pounds, thirteen {hillings and fourpence of our money. Idem. || “ JEre alieno oppreflus, rationes fuas tunc primum coadtus infpexit. Superfuturum fibi feftertium centies “ computavit, et velut in ultima fame vidturus, fi feftertio centies vixiflet, veneno vitam finivit. Quanta “ luxuria erat, cui feftertium centies egeftas fuit.*’ Seneca de cor.fol. ad Helviam. c. 10. Alfo Martial. Epigram, xxii. L. 3.