Image: Il Platina · Public domain
De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine
- Year
- 1474
- Origin
- Italy · Europe
- Language
- Latin
- Category
- Italian/Spanish
De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine, issued in Rome around 1474, holds the distinction of being the first printed cookbook in Europe. Composed in Latin by the humanist and Vatican librarian Bartolomeo Platina, it blends Galenic dietetic theory with practical recipes drawn largely from the manuscripts of Maestro Martino. Widely reprinted into the sixteenth century in Latin and vernacular translations, it shaped Renaissance gastronomic writing across the Continent.
Cooking from this book
Biancomangiare
Signature dishA pale, delicate pottage of pounded capon breast cooked with rice, almond milk and sugar, biancomangiare stands as the emblematic dish of Platina's celebrated treatise. Refined, white and faintly perfumed, it embodied the humanist ideal of food that pleased the palate while preserving health, balancing the four humours through gentle ingredients. As the showpiece of the first printed cookbook, it carried medieval courtly cuisine into the new age of the press and shaped European taste for generations.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
