Detail map of Roma, Lazio, Italy,Venezia, Veneto, Italy,Città del Vaticano, Vatican City Overview map of Roma, Lazio, Italy,Venezia, Veneto, Italy,Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

A: Roma, Lazio, Italy, B: Venezia, Veneto, Italy, C: Città del Vaticano, Vatican City

The First Printed Cookbook: Platina's "De honesta voluptate"

Circa 1475 to 1479
Table of contents listing recipes from the copy of the Venice, 1475 edition of Platina in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

Table of contents listing recipes from the copy of the Venice, 1475 edition of Platina in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

The first two editions of De honesta voluptate et valetudine by Italian humanist and papal librarian Bartholomeo Platina (Sacchi) appeared at roughly the same time. One was issued in Venice by Laurentius de Aquila and Sibylinus Umber on June 13, 1475. (ISTC No.: ip00762000). Another edition, which is sometimes called the first, might be slightly earlier or later. Neither the place, nor the printer, nor the date of printing is identified on that edition, but the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue No.: ip00761000 assigns the work to Ultrich Han of Rome between the years 1475 and 1479. 

Platina credited the origin of most of the recipes in this work to the professional chef Maestro Martino of Como.

Notaker, Printed Cookbooks in Europe 1470-1700 (2010) nos. 1001.1 & 1001.2 states that the earliest surviving manuscript of the work is thought to have been written about 1468, but is not in Platina's hand.

 

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