Tacuinum Sanitatis (printed editions)
- Year
- 1531
- Era
- 16th century
- Origin
- Italy · Europe
- Language
- Latin
- Category
- Medical-culinary
The Tacuinum Sanitatis, derived from the eleventh-century Arabic health handbook of the Baghdad physician Ibn Butlan, circulated widely in Latin translation and reached print in the sixteenth century, with notable editions issued at Strasbourg from 1531. Organised as tables of foodstuffs, beverages, and environmental factors with their humoral qualities and effects, the work bridges Islamic medicine and European dietetics, transmitting Galenic principles that shaped Renaissance ideas of healthful eating.
Cooking from this book
Pottage of gourd with almond milk
Signature dishThe Tacuinum is less a cookbook than a health handbook, pairing foods with humoral notes on their virtues and harms. Among the produce it celebrates, the gourd appears repeatedly, typically prepared as a cooling pottage softened with almond milk. The dish has come to emblematize the work because gourds dominate its famous illustrations, and the preparation captures the book's central idea that everyday vegetables, properly cooked, are medicine for the body.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
