Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

GASTRONOMY AND FOOD

The Property of a Catalan Collector and Former Chef
Lot 167

PLATINA (BARTOLOMEO SACCHI DE)
De honesta voluptate. De ratione victus, & modo vivendi. De natura rerum & arte coquendi libri X; De falso & vero bono dialogi... De optimo cive, 2 works in 1 vol., [Paris], Pierre Vidoue for Jean Petit, 1530

4 December 2019, 11:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,147.50 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

PLATINA (BARTOLOMEO SACCHI DE)

De honesta voluptate. De ratione victus, & modo vivendi. De natura rerum & arte coquendi libri X; De falso & vero bono dialogi... De optimo cive, 2 works in 1 vol., each title with printer's woodcut device and within same woodcut architectural border, woodcut initials, without blank leaf n8, occasional light spotting and soiling, eighteenth century green morocco, triple gilt borders on sides, gilt panelled spine with floral tools, partially faded and rubbed [Adams P1410 & P1407; Simon, Bibliotheca Bacchica 523; Vicaire 691], 8vo (163 x 102mm.), [Paris], Pierre Vidoue for Jean Petit, 1530

Footnotes

First Paris edition of this monument to medieval Italian cuisine: "a guide to the art of good living... the pleasures of the table... and good health" (André Simon). Platina's famous De honesta voluptate is generally considered to be the earliest printed cookbook. Written in around 1460 and first published in 1474, it helped to disseminate Italian ideas about fine dining throughout Europe and remained an important source book for centuries to come. Platina describes every variety of meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, their qualities, and the possible health benefits and problems. Some of the recipes came from the famous chef, Maestro Martino de' Rossi, whom he had met in the summer of 1463, and there is a chapter devoted to wine and vinegar. The cookbook also contains the first recorded usage of cannabis in cooking.

Bartolomeo de Sacchi ("Il Platina") was an important member of the Roman Academy and librarian of the Vatican from 1475 to his death in 1481. The second work bound here, issued at the same time, contains some of his more important brief dialogues and treatises, the most remarkable perhaps the panegyric on Cardinal Bessarion, which was based on personal acquaintance.

Provenance: T.C. Thornton, 1824, ownership signature on fly-leaf; Librairie Giraud-Badin, printed slip loosely inserted.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.