Evaluating foodstuff properties in antiquity : a hierarchy of breads in De alimentorum Facultatibus : proposed by an ancient scientist

Title: Evaluating foodstuff properties in antiquity : a hierarchy of breads in De alimentorum Facultatibus : proposed by an ancient scientist
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2019, vol. 24, iss. 1, pp. 41-59
Extent
41-59
  • ISSN
    1803-7402 (print)
    2336-4424 (online)
Type: Article
Language
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
When approaching the nature of things, Galen of Pergamon tends to use an analytic process based on the relation between different elements interacting in a particular system. With respect to ancient eating habits and health, this way of collecting information and formulating hypotheses has some potential for generating hierarchies and is attested to in De alimentorum facultatibus I, in which foodstuffs are evaluated considering the particular result expected for a subject's metabolism. This paper aims to describe the manner in which a hierarchical construction is made in respect to the qualities of bread. In order to understand how such a method serves Galen's science, it offers a systematization of his commentaries and notes on different kinds of bread and their nutritional properties in the equation: human body condition + (cereal + type of processing) = body reaction.
Note
The research for this paper was supported by fellowship SFRH/BD/93806/2013 from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia.
References
[1] Bamforth, Ch. (2008). Grape vs. Grain. A Historical, Technological, and Social Comparison of Wine and Beer. New York: Cambridge University Press. | DOI 10.1017/CBO9780511546181.002

[2] Beck, L. Y. (Transl.). (2005). Dioscorides Pedanius: De materia medica. Hildesheim: Olms-Weidmann.

[3] Boudon-Millot, V., & Jouanna, J. (Ed. & Transl.). (2010). Galien, IV: Ne pas se chagriner. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

[4] Carter, J. C. (2006). The Contributions of the Sciences to the Discovery of Ancient Rural Civilization. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 150(1), 15‒61.

[5] Cool, H. E. M. (2006). Eating and drinking in Roman Britain. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[6] Corpus Medicorum Graecorum / Latinorum. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften [retrieved 06.08.2016 from http://cmg.bbaw.de/epubl/online/cmg_05_04_02.php?p=265].

[7] Erdkamp, P. (2005). The grain market in the Roman Empire: a social, political and economic study. New York: Cambridge University Press.

[8] Flora-On. Sociedade Portuguesa de Botânica [retrieved 06.08.2017 from http://www.flora-on.pt/index.php#/].

[9] Garnsey, P. (1988). Famine and Food Supply in the Graeco-Roman World: Responses to Risk and Crisis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[10] Grant, M. (2000). Galen: on food and diet. London: Routledge.

[11] Henderson, J. (Ed.). (1934). Cato and Varro: On agriculture (transl. W. D. Hooper; rev. H. B. Ash; Loeb Classical Library, 283). London: Harvard University Press.

[12] Jasny, N. (1950). The Daily Bread of the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Osiris, 9, 227–253. | DOI 10.1086/368531

[13] Jouanna, J. (2012). Dietetics in Hippocratic Medicine: Definition, Main Problems, Discussion. In P. van der Eijk (Ed.), Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen. Leiden: Brill.

[14] JSTOR Global Plants. JSTOR, ITHAKA (2000‒2019) [retrieved 06.08.2017 from http://plants.jstor.org/].

[15] Kessler, D., & Temin, P. (2007). The grain trade in the Early Roman Empire. Economic History Review, 60(2), 313–332. | DOI 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2006.00360.x

[16] Kühn, K. G. (2011). Claudii Galeni opera omnia (Vol. 6). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[17] Mattern, S. P. (2008). Galen and the rhetoric of healing. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

[18] Mattern, S. P. (2013). The Prince of Medicine. Galen in the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[19] Mattern, S. P. (2017). Galen. In W. A. Johnson (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the Second Sophistic. New York: Oxford University Press [retrieved 01.05.2019 from https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.49]. | DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.49]

[20] Medicina Antiqua. University College London [retrieved 30.12.2015 from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eucgajpd/medicina%20antiqua/index.html].

[21] Meyer, F. G. (1980). Carbonized Food Plants of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the Villa at Torre Annunziata. Economic Botany, 34(4), 401–437. | DOI 10.1007/BF02858317

[22] Morley, N. (2002). Metropolis and hinterland: The city of Rome and the Italian economy 200 B.C.‒A.D. 200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[23] Naturdata. Biodiversidade Online. Portugal (2009‒2018) [retrieved 06.08.2017 from http://naturdata.com/].

[24] Petersen, L. H. (2003). The Baker, His Tomb, His Wife, and Her Breadbasket: The Monument of Eurysaces in Rome. The Art Bulletin, 85(2), 230‒257. | DOI 10.2307/3177343

[25] Powell, O. (2003). Galen. On the Properties of Foodstuffs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[26] Safrai, Z. (1994). The Economy of Roman Palestine. New York: Routledge.

[27] Silva, M. de F. S. e, & Paiva, J. (2016). Teofrasto, História das plantas: tradução portuguesa, com introdução e anotação. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra.

[28] Singer, P. N. (1997). Levels of Explanation in Galen. The Classical Quarterly, 47(2), 525–542. | DOI 10.1093/cq/47.2.525

[29] Temin, P. (2013). Roman Market Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

[30] Thurmond, D. L. (2006). A handbook of food processing in Classical Rome. For her bounty no winter. Leiden: Brill.

[31] Whitmarsh, T. (2005). The second sophistic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[32] Wilkins, J. (2002). The Contribution of Galen, De Subtiliante Diaeta (On the Thinning Diet). Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, Supplement, 77, 47–55. | DOI 10.1111/j.2041-5370.2002.tb02278.x

[33] Wilkins, J. (2005). Galen and Athenaeus on Technical Terms for Foods. In Th. Fögen (Ed.), Antike Fachtexte. Ancient Technical Texts (pp. 79‒90). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

[34] Wilson, A., & Schörle, K. (2009). A baker's funerary relief from Rome. Papers of the British School at Rome, 77, 101‒123. | DOI 10.1017/S0068246200000052