Athénée

1556 · 806 — Venice: Andrea Arrivabene 1556. Hardcover. Good. The first complete Latin edition of the ancient 3rd century A.D. Athenaeus' work on banqueting; the work is presented as conversations but touches on ancient societal norms food recipes food criticism politics love and many other topics. Of note the oldest known ""recipe"" assigned to a named chef is found in this work when a short recipe is attributed to Mithaecus fifth century B.C. on the preparation of fish on page 133 of this edition. Related we have one of the oldest examples of food criticism where Archestratus page 117 states that the preparation of fish in the style of Mithaecus' culture is disgusting and should only be reserved for covering up the flavor of poor-quality fish. This particular copy has a funny annotation on page 7 where the note taker re-writes perhaps with disbelief the statement that an aphrodisiac has the ability for the user to partake in intercourse 70 times. Bibliographic Details - Universal Short Title Catalogue USTC number 811384 not rare many copies in the world's finest libraries - BnF Trinity College Cambridge BL Merton and Bodleian Oxford among others. Only four copies recorded to the U.S. Harry Ransom Chicago U. New York Public Library U. of Penn. Physical Attributes - Measures approx. 31.5 x 21 x 2 cm. Mottled leather binding. Spine with six raised bands; 6 compartments with central gilt ornament one compartment with title in gilt on tan morocco. Edges sprinkled red. Printer's device to title page. Pages - xii 288 12 - Index Collation - 6 A-Z6 AA6 Aa6. Collates complete. Condition - See pictures. Leather binding is well-worn with corner bumps rubs a little drying chip at head and tail of spine edge and corner wear etc. Shelf mark ticket on pastedown ghosted flyleaf. Text block toned throughout with occasional page edge chip fox mark thumb dog-eared corner errant ink mark candle-ember mark etc. Occasional annotations. Title page with name in old hand. 1st three leaves with small hole near top edge no text affected. Marginal annotations to ""argumentum"" and underlining. p51 with ink mark. Marginal annotations were trimmed with binding 18th century binding. Leaves Q2 and Q3 with some odd foxing like something got on the paper food prep. A small singular wormhole near gutter no text affected. Andrea Arrivabene