Food and Health in Early Modern Europe: Diet, Medicine and Society, 1450-1800

265 Pages·2015·4.33 MB·English

by  David Gentilcore

FOOD AND HEALTH IN EARLY
MODERN EUROPE

FOOD AND HEALTH IN EARLY
MODERN EUROPE
DIET, MEDICINE AND SOCIETY, 1450–1800
David Gentilcore
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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First published 2016
© David Gentilcore, 2016
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-2889-6
PB: 978-1-4725-3497-2
ePDF: 978-1-4725-3319-7
ePub: 978-1-4725-2842-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gentilcore, David.
Food and health in early modern Europe / David Gentilcore.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4725-2889-6 (HB) – ISBN 978-1-4725-3497-2 (PB) – ISBN 978-1-4725-3319-7
(ePDF) – ISBN 978-1-4725-2842-1 (ePUB) 1. Health promotion–Europe. 2. Nutrition–Europe.
3. Food supply–Europe. 4. Food consumption–Europe. I. Title.
RA427.8.G42 2015
613.094 – dc23
2015004354
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For Fabiana, of course

CONTENTS
List of Figures viii
Introduction 1
1 Healthy Food: Renaissance Dietetics, c.1450–c.1650 9
2 Healthy Food: The Fall and Rise of Dietetics, c.1650–c.1800 27
3 Rich Food, Poor Food: Diet, Physiology and Social Rank 49
4 Regional Food: Nature and Nation in Europe 75
5 Holy Food: Spiritual and Bodily Health 95
6 Vegetable Food: The Vegetarian Option 115
7 New World Food: The Columbian Exchange and Its European Impact 133
8 Liquid Food: Drinking for Health 157
Conclusion 181
Notes 184
Bibliography 219
Index 238
LIST OF FIGURES
1.1 ‘Sancho at the feast starved by his physician’. Engraving by T. Cook
after W. Hogarth, late eighteenth century (Wellcome Library,
London). 10
1.2 Title page of Baldassare Pisanelli’s Trattato della natura de’ cibi et
del bere, 1586 (Wellcome Library, London). 13
1.3 Title page of Thomas Elyot’s Castel of Helth, 1539 (Wellcome Library,
London). 23
2.1 ‘Thomas Wood, the abstemious miller’. Engraving by R. Cooper
after J. Ogborne, 1773 (Wellcome Library, London). 28
2.2 Santorio Santorio (Sanctorius) on his weighing chair, 1718
(Wellcome Library, London). 34
2.3 Title page of the 1704 English translation of Louis Lémery’s Traité
des aliments (Wellcome Library, London). 36
2.4 George Cheyne. Mezzotint by J. Faber after Johan van Diest, 1732
(Wellcome Library, London). 41
2.5 ‘Le médecin et le malade, où le gastronome égoïste et le gastronome
à la diète’ (Doctor and patient, or the self-centred gourmand and
the dieting gastronome). Engraving by L.-F. Charon, late eighteenth
century (Wellcome Library, London). 43
3.1 ‘Le festin royal’: banquet given by the city of Paris to celebrate
the birth of the dauphin. Engraving by J.-M. Moreau after
P.-L. Moreau, 1782 (Wellcome Library, London). 53
3.2 Bakers and bread types. Coloured etching, late eighteenth century
(Wellcome Library, London). 59
3.3 ‘Caseus. Chese’. Woodcut from Peter Treveris, The grete herball
whiche gyueth parfyt knowlege and understandyng of all maner of
herbes and there gracyous vertues, 1529 (Wellcome Library, London). 67
4.1 ‘Good old Dutch beer’: tavern scene. Engraving by J. Suyderhoff
after A. van Ostade, seventeenth century (Wellcome Library, London). 80
4.2 ‘O the roast beef of old England’. Engraving by C. Mosley after
W. Hogarth, 1848 (Wellcome Library, London). 91
List of Figures
5.1 ‘La marchande de poisson’ (The fish seller). Engraving by
J. Beauvarlet after A. Carré, eighteenth century (Wellcome Library,
London). 98
5.2 Extreme abstinence: Apollonia Schreier of Galz, near Berne.
Woodcut from Paulus Lentulus, Historia admiranda, de prodigiosa
Apolloniae Schreierae, virginis in agro Bernensi, inedia …
tribus narrationibus comprehensa, 1604 (Wellcome Library,
London). 106
6.1 A gardener working in a fruit and vegetable garden. Coloured
woodcut from Eucharius Rösslin, Kreuterbüch, von natürlichem
Nutz, und gründtlichem Gebrauch der Kreutter, Bäum, Gesteud, und
Früchten, fürnemlich Teutscher Lande, 1550 (Wellcome Library,
London). 121
6.2 ‘Gustus. Le goust’ (The sense of taste), with the prized artichoke as
centrepiece. Engraving by A. Bosse after his painting The artichoke
feast, c.1630–50 (Wellcome Library, London). 123
6.3 Roger Crab, frontispiece of The English Hermite, 1655 (Wellcome
Library, London). 126
7.1 ‘Fragaria. Strawberrie’, the wild strawberry. Woodcut from The
Seconde Parte of William Turner’s Herball, 1562 (Wellcome Library,
London). 137
7.2 ‘Capsicum’ (chilli pepper). Woodcut from Nicolás Monardes, De
simplicibus medicamentis ex Occidentali India delatis, quorum in
medicina usus est, 1574 (Wellcome Library, London). 139
7.3 Title page of Melchior Sebisch’s De alimentorum facultatibis, 1650,
with turkey in evidence (Wellcome Library, London). 143
7.4 ‘Potato of Virginia’. Engraving from John Gerard, The Herball or,
Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597 (Wellcome Library, London). 151
8.1 ‘De ebrietate’ (drunkenness). Woodcut from Johann
Brettschneider’s De tuenda bona valetudine, 1550 (Wellcome
Library, London). 159
8.2 Acquajolo di Napoli (Neapolitan water seller). Watercolour, artist
and date unknown (Wellcome Library, Naples). 161
8.3 ‘Temperance’, represented mixing water and wine into a drinking
bowl. Engraving, artist unknown, late sixteenth century (Wellcome
Library, London). 165
ix