„O ptactwie możnowładców, najpierw o pawiu i gęsi”
On the birds of nobility, first on the peacock and the goose

Animals seen from the culinary literature perspective of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Author(s): Marta Pszczolińska
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Polish Literature, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, Theory of Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Bartolomeo Platina; Martino da Como; libri di cucina; cookery books; cooking recipes; herbaria; peacock; sea urchin; suckerfish
Summary/Abstract: The chapter is devoted to the analysis of the portrayal of animals in medieval and Renaissance culinary literature and texts on the specific dishes consumed by upper social classes. Old culinary books show animals not only as a natural product, rich in in appropriate nutrients, but also as an important component of dishes prepared for the tables of nobility. In this second aspect, individual animal species have additional cultural, symbolic or aesthetic meanings. An indispensable element of books, reflecting the then state of medical knowledge and existing opinions, is the assessment of animals as such and the recipes subjected to the theory of humours in terms of their suitability for different groups of people, with regard to their health, age, sex or background. De honesta voluptate et valitudine, Bartolomeo Platina’s Renaissance publication is a breakthrough in the earlier perception of cooking as a prosaic aspect of life. Platina shows a culinary animal in a new humanist version, devoting to it additional chapters containing natural knowledge, closely related to dietetics and medicine. The popularity of his treatise is reflected in how particular animals are described in Polish Renaissance herbaria.

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