Description
Vincent F. Cuenca, Published 2001. Wraps, vi, ix, 86 pp.; 28 cm; roman pagination runs twice, i-vi for the contents leaves and i-ix for the preliminaries; plastic comb binding; cover art by Mary M. Haselbauer; endnotes and bibliography.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. White paper covers printed in black, front cover with a line-drawn Gothic arch enclosing a cook raising a goblet before a seated king, signed in the plate. Mild shelf and edge wear, with slight waviness along top edge of covers carrying into the first few leaves. Comb binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Complete English translation of the 1529 Logrono edition of de Nola's Libro de Cozina, the Castilian form of the Llibre del Coch printed at Barcelona in 1520, the first cookbook printed in Catalan; its author served as cook to Fernando I of Naples. Translated from Dionisio Perez's 1929 reprint in the ten-volume Los Clasicos Olvidados series, so, as the preface puts it, a translation of a reprint of a translation. The preface gives the reason for choosing the 1529 text over the earlier Catalan and Castilian ones: it is the longest of the early editions, carries recipes for invalids the others lack, and adds a chapter on the proper maintenance of household affairs. Perez counted fourteen editions in fifty-seven years, and the work was taken up without credit by Diego de Granado in his 1599 Arte de Cortar and by Domingo Hernandez de Maceras in the 1607 Libro de Arte de Cozina. Translates the whole book rather than the recipes alone. Chapter I covers the carving of bacon, suckling pig, beef, hares, rabbits and peacocks, the mode of giving lords to drink, the giving of water to wash the hands, how to place food on the table, and the offices of the household from majordomo and head butler through chamberlain, wardrobe keeper, cupbearer, carver, overseer, provisioner, cook and groom. Chapter II is Counsel from the Holy Doctor and Singular Advice. The recipes follow: common spices, Duke's Powder and spices for hippocras and clarea, blancmange, the Royal, Imperial, Angels' and Prince's Dishes, pottages of mutton, chicken, kid and offal, eggplants and gourds in the Moorish style, rice with meat broth, noodles, a long sequence of dishes for invalids including distilled broths, marzipans and an electuary of sour cherries, sauces camelline and girofina, and Roast Cat as It Should Be Prepared. Endnotes engage Scully, Redon, Lladonosa I Giro and the Diccionario de Autoridades. Preliminaries include Some Notes on the Text, Weights and Measures, and Fernando I of Naples and His Cook. Bibliography divided into primary and secondary sources.