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.
We have already talked about Manio de Maineri( link: https://ailovetourism.com/maino-de-maineri-lo-chef-stellato-quando-le-stelle-ruotavano-intorno-alla-terra/), a medical cook who, in fact, wrote a recipe book called Regimen Sanitatis.
Written book that dates back to the early fourteenth century and falls within the scope of a late medieval treatise, heir to the Greek-Latin and Arab tradition, oriented towards maintaining health.
Structure of the Regimen Sanitatis
The Regimen reveals in its structure the importance accorded to diet among the "res non naturales". The page following the title page bears the dedication to the aforementioned Andrea Ghini Malpighi whose name never appears in the text. The practical nature of the treatise refers to an audience composed of students or professionals of medical science.
The work is structured in five parts: in the first, consisting of two chapters, the author defines the state of health and justifies the need to follow the prescriptions of the Regimen Sanitatis.
The second part, divided into seven chapters, deals with the "res naturales"; the third describes the regime according to the idea of "res non naturales", and consists of twenty-six chapters. The fourth section, divided into five chapters, is dedicated to the "res contra naturam".
Finally, in the fifth and final part, made up of nine chapters, the author intends to indicate some technical interventions aimed at restoring health (phlebotomy, leeches, drugs, enemas, vomiting, suppositories, etc.). The structure of the treatise refers to that of the Canon of Avicenna divided into five books; in particular, it recalls the first book of this work entirely dedicated to the "res naturales" and to the "res non naturales"
This affinity can be seen in the very nature of Magnino's work, which takes the form of a sort of compendium of practical knowledge about the practice of medicine. In this perspective, the Regimen Sanitatis can be considered as a preservative summa of encyclopaedic imprint, at the intersection between university teaching and medical practice. Proof of this is the very framework of the treatise, which moves from the first parts of a doctrinal nature to the subsequent ones concerning the concrete explanation of such knowledge. “De Saporibus et condimentis” Condiments and sauces play a fundamental role in the prescriptions of the Milanese doctor; in the twentieth chapter of the third part of the Regimen, the author dedicates to them a large exposition concerning the uses of oil, salt, butter, as well as an accurate description of the composition of sauces and their combinations with foods.
The importance accorded to condiments and sauces is due to the widespread belief in medieval treatises that they exercise a corrective action on foods, considerably improving their taste and digestibility. They are assigned a dual function, dietetic and culinary, which involves careful use of condiments and translates into the prescription of gastronomic recipes that comply with dietary rules, according to an ideal of balance between the "moods" and the qualities of the foods whose theoretical principles are to be found in ancient medical science. In this sense, dietetics and gastronomy are configured as two peculiar aspects of the same knowledge in which cooking becomes a combinatorial art, which advocates not the consumption of natural products, but their modification and manipulation, thus favoring the idea of culinary act as something artificial.
In Maino de' Manieri's Regimen Sanitatis this link between gastronomy and dietetics is very strongly felt, especially in the chapter entitled De Saporibus et condimentis. In it, the Milanese doctor first considers the uses of oil, salt and butter, then those of sauces.
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Oil, butter and salt
The first condiment mentioned is salt, particularly suitable for preserving food and for salting it; of these functions the author is mainly interested in the culinary and dietary uses.
Since salt has the property of humiditatem extraneam desiccare, it is advisable to use it in abundant quantities with "large" and "humid" meats such as, for example, porcine meats; to a lesser extent it is suitable for "thin" and "dry" ones such as partridges, pheasants, hens, larks, rabbits and hares. An intermediate salting between the two previous ones requires instead the beef, of a "coarse" nature, but without viscosity; while fish with "thin" flesh do not need salt, especially if they are small animals. Conversely, "bestial fish" such as sea pigs and whales, given the "large" and "wet" nature of their flesh, require a considerable amount of salt. As regards dishes based on vegetables, salt and water are not sufficient as a condiment; it is good to add oil, butter and lard. This is the case of the treplice, or of the nasturtium, in whose recipe the author adds saffron. Again, salt is indicated to flavor the suffocated eggs (seasoned, in turn, with water and oil) and the meat broth; while it is absent in the composition of sauces, mainly made up of herbs, spices and acidic elements, such as wine, vinegar and verjuice. Also the other condiments mentioned by Magnino, namely oil and butter, are not mentioned among the ingredients of the sauces; if used, they appear above all in recipes concerning vegetables. In particular, the oil is used to flavor foods of a "melancholic" and "terrestrial" nature, such as legumes, vegetables, mushrooms, truffles, for which "bonum est ea condiri cum aliquo unctuoso eorum terrestriitatem obtemperante".
Among the various types of oil, the best is Voleum olivarum, sweet and temperate, recommended for seasoning mushrooms together with powdered spices (composed, for example, of white ginger and cinnamon). It is also indicated combined with truffles with water, egg yolk together with a mixture of spices. Instead of oil, Magnino sometimes suggests the use of butter. Given its high degree of "humidity" and greasiness, it is good to use it in moderate quantities, exclusively as a condiment and never after other foods. Compared to olive oil, to which it is compared for greasiness, it is calidius et multum humidus. However, as food and condiment it is non est tantum decoquendum sicut oleum, as its characteristics are more alterable. The oil, however, more viscous and less corruptible, supports longer cooking times.
In fact, the author indicates butter only in one recipe: it is a "pastilla" of porcine and beef meat, to be eaten in the summer, in which the butter appears in the form of caseus butyrosus. It is completely absent in the remaining culinary prescriptions, both as a food and as a condiment. The oil is mentioned above all in raw dressings for vegetables; as a hot condiment it is present in the recipe for suffocated eggs and in those relating to mushrooms and truffles. The fact that oil and butter are not mentioned in the composition of sauces is part of a characteristic trend of medieval cuisine, even if already between the 14th and 15th centuries we are witnessing the affirmation of butter as a hot condiment, especially in the countries of the North Europe, but also in the southern ones. The oil remains mainly linked to Mediterranean cuisine.
In the work of the Milanese doctor, the use of butter is not recommended (apart from the recipe concerning the meat-based pastilla); the oil is used exclusively as a salad dressing, and the sauces are mainly composed of acidic and lean elements. It is no coincidence that Magnino's dietetics is placed in a phase prior to that transformation that began in the fourteenth century, which saw the affirmation of edible fats in the various cuisines of Europe in the modern age.
“End Part One ”
In this first tranche we talked about everything related to food thickeners and general seasonings; in the second part, condiments will be introduced with food preparation and cooking techniques described with an almost scientific vision (premature for that historical period) with advice on the best raw materials.
We look forward to the next article !!!
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