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R eg im en S an ita tis di M a in ode ' M a in eri
Maino de' Maineri's Regimen Sanitatis dates back to the beginning of the 14th century and is part of a late medieval treatise, heir to the Greek-Latin and Arab tradition, oriented towards maintaining health. In it, hygiene prescriptions and dietary rules, in addition to providing practical instructions, respond to an idea of "right measure" connected to the nature of foods and their nutritional function.
The principles on which medieval dietetics is based are already defined in the theory of the four humors elaborated by Hippocrates of Cos at the end of the fifth century BC and systematized by Galen of Pergamum in the second century AD1 Galen adds the concept of "temperament" to the Hippocratic theory and elaborates the categories of "res naturales" and "res non naturales", which later became the canonical structuring of the medieval regimena sanitatis.
According to this canonization, "res naturales" are the constituents without which the organism cannot exist, i.e. the "four elements" (air, water, fire, earth), the qualities or opposing pairs hot/cold, dry/um ido, the four “humors” phlegm, yellow bile, black bile, blood, the parts, the faculties, the operations, the “spirits”. The "res non naturales" are those external factors that influence the body's humoral balance, favoring or averting the attacks of diseases ("things against nature") depending on the circumstances and other subjective variables such as age, profession , the "temperament", the sex.
The “res non naturales” essentially concern six areas: aer (air/environment); cibus et potus (food/drink); motus et quies (exercise / rest); somnus et viglia (sleep/wake); repletio et evacuatio (expulsion or retention of “humors”); accidentes animae (affections of the soul, passions, or psychological states). Regarding the binomial cibus et potus (as for the other "res non naturales"), one of the cardinal principles of ancient and later medieval medical knowledge is valid, namely the concept of balance between the opposite qualities of the elements.
The recipes of Maino de' Maineri's Regimen reflect this concept in the idea of a "correct mix" of the properties of individual foods, in relation to man's "moods", "temperaments", as well as the seasons and cosmic elements. It is a system of balances that involves both the medicinal and the culinary spheres; in this sense there has been talk of a “galenic cook” and of “dietary cooking
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Life and works of a doctor in the service of the powerful
Maino de' Maineri (also known as Magnino) was born in Milan to Giacomo de' Maineri probably between 1290 and 1295; learned, man of the court, knight, doctor and astrologer, he comes from a noble family who took part in Milanese life at the time of the struggle between the Communes and the Empire (12th century). From a Maynero derives the branch of the family that lives in Mozzate sul Comasco (the "old stock" from which Mayno comes), rich in fiefdoms and allodial possessions, as well as in the Como area, in Piedmont and in the Lodi area. Magnino spent his youth in Milan under the lordship of Guido Torriani, from whom the Maineris received benevolence and protection. In 1326 he was professor of the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. His protector and master was the Florentine nobleman Andrea Ghini de Malpighi, following whom the Milanese doctor went to France. Five years later (1331), although married, Magnino obtained permission from Pope John XXII to continue teaching at the medical school in Paris, despite celibacy being imposed as a rule on all members of the Faculty. Subsequently, he followed the Florentine prelate in Tournai (1334-1342); in this period, perhaps, he still held the position of teaching medicine at the Parisian faculty. In 1346 Magnino was in Milan, registered as a physician and astronomer of the Viscontis; the following year he accompanied Isabella Fieschi, wife of Luchino Visconti (lord of the city), on a trip to Venice. He is still alive in 1364; he dies probably not many years later.
A cook … a scientist
Beyond the scarce biographical information, it is above all the works of Maino de' Maineri that bear witness to his activity as a doctor and intellectual in Milan and Paris. They concern diversified fields of science: medicine, dietetics, astronomy.
The best-known writing is the Regimen Sanitatis, a manual of practical advice for leading a healthy life dedicated to the aforementioned Andrea Ghini de Malpighi, bishop of Arras from 1331 to 1333 (the same years, probably, of the composition of the treatise). In the following centuries, the Regimen experienced a notable diffusion, testifying to a type of treatise that became widely consumed in the late Middle Ages and in the modern age; in particular, it is the typographic art that favors its wide circulation and spreads the fame of the author.
There are numerous editions of the Regimen dating back to the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th which report Magnino's name at the beginning and at the end of the work. The first we know of is printed in Louvain in 1482; a second, again in Louvain in 1486. Other editions followed: one published in Basel in 1493, another in Paris in 1498. Again, publications dating back to the beginning of the 16th century are known: one in Basel and one in Strasbourg in 1503; another made in Lyon in 1517, followed by two more in 1520 and 1532 in the same city; finally, an edition produced in Basel in 1590. In these prints the author's name is accompanied by epithets of praise, such as "Very expert doctor", or "Very famous doctor"
However, there is an edition of the treatise which earned Magnino a heavy accusation of plagiarism. This is the version of the Regimen that appeared in the Works of Arnaldo da Villanova, a Spanish doctor who lived in the second half of the XIII and the beginning of the XIV century, published in Lyon in 1504 by the Genoese Tommaso Murchi. The title page of this version bears the inscription: Incipit liber de depositi sanitatis Arnaldi de villanova quem Magninus mediolanensis sibi appropriavit addendo et immutando nonnulla. Probably, according to Pio Rajna, it was Murchi himself who launched the accusation, which remained in subsequent editions, however, without the name of the accuser. Hence the generation of two distinct traditions, one which attributes the work to Magnino, the other which considers it to be Arnaldo di Villanova. According to Rajna, the Lyonnaise edition of 1504, shorter than the manuscript version of the Regimen in his possession, is perhaps a redaction made by a doctor who had transcribed parts of Magnino's work for personal use. Several studies are still underway to estimate its plagiarism or not.
“Epidemic recipes ”
Miniature of a recipe from the 1200s
In 1360 Magnino also drew up the Libellus de preservatone ab epydemia, probably as a result of the plague of 1348; again, the Liber medicinalis octo tractatuum dates back to the years in which the author was in the service of the Visconti (after 1346). In addition to his medical interest, Magnino cultivates other fields of science, such as astrology and palmistry. Evidence of this is the Theorica corporum celestium (1358), the Livre de cyromancie (which has come down to us in French), a work of philosophy, the De intentionibus secundis (written in the years 1329-30), and a treatise on morality, the Contemptus sublimitatis .
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