Summary
The lecture is to support the
hypothesis of existence an actual connection between culinary art and dietetics in antiquity and
Byzantium by means of exemplifying the presence of the dietetic knowledge in
the literature of Antiquity and Byzantium.
The existence of this connection has been observed and
proved by the author of the lecture in his publications over the past decade
but especially in his study in fish and fish products in late Antiquity and
early Byzantium (Ryby i ich
znaczenie w życiu codziennym ludzi późnego antyku i wczesnego Bizancjum
(III–VII w.) [The importance of fish in the everyday life of the people of late
Antiquity and early Byzantium [III-VII c.], Łódź 2005) and in the recently composed chapter on
Constantinopolitan nutritional patterns (Smaki
Konstantynopola [Flavours of Constantinople], [in:] Konstantynopol. Miasto i ludzie w okresie
wczesnobizanyńskim [Constantinople.
The city and its ihabitants in the early Byzantine period], eds. M. J. Leszka, T. Wolińska,
Warszawa 2011, p. 471-575). However, analogous
methodological remarks were made (independently and regardless of the
applicant’s own research) by Andrew Dalby (Flavours of Byzantium, Blackawton, Totnes, Devon 2003)
and recently repeated in his Tastes of
Byzantium. The cuisine of a legendary empire, London–New York 2010.
The
first part of the lecture is to single out elements of dietetic knowledge/lore
present outside medical literature (first and foremost in Deipnosophists by Athenaeus of Naucratis and Geoponica). The part of the presentation is to help assess
popularization of dietetic doctrines
throughout Antiquity and early Byzantium.
Subsequently, the lecture will analyze select recipes
taken from De coquinaria (i.e. the
recipes for sauces [oxyporum, oxygarum digesti bile, oenogarum], flavoured salts, sales
conditi, spiced wine, conditum
paradoxum, honey wine, conditum
melizomum viatorum, Roman absinth, absintium
Romanum, rose wine, rosatum,
vegetable purée, pulmentarium, the soups called tisana vel sucus and tisana
barrica, and finally the commentary on nettles) and show their analogies to
the doctrines present in medical writings.
