Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry: A Humourous Glimpse of the Later Medieval Italian Diet
Location
Wedgewood Conference Center, Room 4094
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
28-9-2015 1:00 PM
Description
As with modern medicine, late medieval physicians ascribed numerous healthy and deleterious effects to different classes of foodstuff. As today, doctors acted as dieticians, preparing general and personalized regimens of diet, exercise, rest, and other behaviors that were meant to maintain or restore good health. But doctors then were wedded to the humoural system of human physiology, which presented a very different set of relationships of food to health than are accepted today. This presentation will introduce some foundations and variations of late medieval Italian health regimens as outlined in medical, dietary, and cookery literature of the period from around 1250 to about 1500. Dr. Byrne has drawn material from his several books on the period’s medical history and his work in progress, The World of the Italian Renaissance: An Encyclopedia of Daily Life (due 2016).
Recommended Citation
Byrne, Joseph, "Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry: A Humourous Glimpse of the Later Medieval Italian Diet" (2015). Humanities Symposium. 35.
https://repository.belmont.edu/humanities_symposium/2015/2015/35
Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry: A Humourous Glimpse of the Later Medieval Italian Diet
Wedgewood Conference Center, Room 4094
As with modern medicine, late medieval physicians ascribed numerous healthy and deleterious effects to different classes of foodstuff. As today, doctors acted as dieticians, preparing general and personalized regimens of diet, exercise, rest, and other behaviors that were meant to maintain or restore good health. But doctors then were wedded to the humoural system of human physiology, which presented a very different set of relationships of food to health than are accepted today. This presentation will introduce some foundations and variations of late medieval Italian health regimens as outlined in medical, dietary, and cookery literature of the period from around 1250 to about 1500. Dr. Byrne has drawn material from his several books on the period’s medical history and his work in progress, The World of the Italian Renaissance: An Encyclopedia of Daily Life (due 2016).
Comments
Convocation Credit: Academic Lecture