Apicii Coelii De Opsoniis Et Condimentis, Sive Arte Coquinaria, Libri Decum cum Annotationibus Martini Lister (The Art of Recipes And Food Of The Kitchen [translated, edited and with commentary by Martin Lister])

Amsterdam: Janssonio-Waesbergios, 1709. First edition. Leather_bound. Very Good. 24 mo (3 1/2" x 6") in modern rebind of full leather with contemporary marbled endpapers retained. All edges gilt. Binding is fine and tight; text generally clean with some occasional very light tidemarking. (1) blank; frontispiece engraving by J. Waesbergios depicting preparaion of foodstufs in an ancient kitchen; title printed in red and black; (3, "Viro Celeberrimo Martino Listero Dedicatio"); (21, "Martinus Lister Lectori"); 277+ (17, "Variae Lectiones") + (25, Index). Marcus Gavius Apicius was a first century A.D. Roman gourmet living during the reign of Tiberius. This work was a collection of Roman cookery recipes, the earliest known surviving copy originating in the 5th century; it cannot be proveably attributed to Apicius as the actual author and is thought to have been written by a somewhat later author and based on what was known about Apicius. The first printed editions of the basic work, titled "In re Quoquinaria" was produced in 1498 in Milan and in 1500 in Venice. The importance of this, the 1709 edition, is that it was translated and contained commentary by Martin Lister (1639-1712), the English physcian and naturalist (he was the first arachnologist and conchologist), who related the material in the original work to medicine and healing. His commentary came from the point of view of a doctor and appears in 21 prefactory pages and in commentary throughout. Lister's comments appear on one side of the two-column portions under each of the main Apicius sections; the other is the commentary of Gabriel Humelberg (or Hummelberger) who edited a 1542 edition of which his commentary represented two thirds of the text. Humelberg (1487-1544) was a German humanist, doctor and botanist who particularly studied medicinal plants and ancient botanical writings.