Diaeteticon sive de Re Cibaria libri IV

Antwerp: ex Officina Petri Belleri, 1645. Diaeteticon - Containing Everything that the Ancients Wrote about Food

NONNIUS, Ludovicus. Diaeteticon sive de Re Cibaria libri IV. Secunda editio et Auctior. Antuerpiae, ex Officina Petri Belleri, MDCXLV (Antwerp, 1645).

Second edition. Small quarto (7 1/2 x 6 inches; 191 x 152 mm.). xxix, 526, [2, colophon, verso blank] pp. Paper faults in lower blank margins of Ff3 pp. 29/230; Oo4 pp. 295/296 & Ss4 pp. 327/328. Lower blank corner (7/8 x 1 3/8 inch) of Nnn3 pp. 469/470 torn away, some light lower marginal staining affecting the last fifty pages.

Contemporary vellum, lettered on spine in manuscript. Armorial bookplate of Westbury on front paste-down. Covers a little spotted. A very good copy.

"The treatise is divided into 4 books, the first on the repast in general and fruits and legumes; the second on animals, fowl and game; the third on fish; and the fourth on beverages." (Bitting p. 344)

First published in 1627, Ludovicus Nonnius's Diaeteticon was a significant source for understanding the dietary recommendations and medical perspectives of the 17th century. It provides insights into the historical development of medical knowledge, particularly in the field of nutrition and dietetics. The 17th century was a time of evolving ideas in medicine, including the understanding of the relationship between diet and health. Works like Nonnius's "Diaeteticon" contribute to the historical understanding of early modern medical practices.

Ludovic Nunez , by his Latin name Ludovicus Nonnus or Ludovicus Nonnius , is a Flemish doctor, born in Antwerp in 1553 and died after 1645. He was the son of a Portuguese surgeon who had followed the Spanish armies into the Netherlands. He traveled extensively in Italy . We do not know the exact date of his death; but he was still alive in 1645 when he signed the second edition of his treatise on food. His erudition was unusual and he maintained correspondence with several scholars, Justus Lipsius among others.

The first edition of 1727 is strictly the same as the one here offered, published in 1645. The work contains everything that the ancients wrote about food. The first book gives general considerations on meals, fruits and vegetables; the second is devoted to meat, game, poultry; the third to fish and the last to drinks: habits of drinking iced, hot mixtures of wine and water; Empedocles' opinions on wine, why Pythagoras did not drink wine, Asclepiades ' magnificent praise of wine; the nutritional qualities of wine, the different species of wine, old wines; the barbarians who drink pure wine; how to mix wine; one chapter concerns mead (in Latin, Mulsum); wine diseases; beer, palm wine, cider.

Bitting p. 344; Hirsch II, 391; Vicaire 626.