book i.

41. Lacertus et aurata.) I have chosen rather to retain the Latin appellations of these fish, and several more, than to follow the conjectures of the moderns, where they are not agreed. Aurata is taken for the gilt-head, corvus, a cabot, oculata, eye-fish, resembling a lizard, plani, flat fish, or the turbot kind, lupus some will have the pike, others sturgeon. Mullus, barbett, or mullet.--See Pliny who describes them.

42. Four footed animal.) I have here rejected the particle vel, according to the older reading; because our author would never say, A quadruped or any animal that is sucking, &c. since no other sucking animals are used for food but quadrupeds.

43. Soft or sorbile.) The first by Dioscorides is called ἀπαλὸν, and the second ῥοφητὸν. Humelbergius in his notes upon Apicius de re Coquinar. takes the first to be eggs boiled soft without their shell, by us called poached eggs.

44. Alica is reckoned among the vernal seeds. It is a species of wheat which degenerates after being sown in soils not proper for it, as in Africa, where it has the name of zea. It is ground to meal, and the husks taken from it, and then chalk is added to it, which renders it exceedingly white and soft. The best chalk for this purpose is found between Puteoli and Naples. A common way of counterfeiting it is to take the largest and whitest grains of wheat, and after parboiling these, and drying them in the sun, to sprinkle them, and after drying a second time, to grind them. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 7. and 11. The same author says, this is an invention of the Romans, and not very old, unknown to the Greeks, otherwise they would not have bestowed so many encomiums upon their ptisan; because it was not mentioned by any of the followers of Asclepiades, he believed it was not used in the time of Pompey the Great. Id. lib. xxii. cap. 25.

45. Pulse.) Pulticula is a diminutive of puls, which was a very ancient kind of food, made of meal, water, honey, or with cheese and eggs boiled, which, according to Pliny, the Romans used for many years, before they knew bread.

46. Passum.) Columella’s method of making passum (from Mago) is this--Gather the early grapes thoroughly ripe, and throw away what stones are either dry or rotten. Expose them to the sun in the daytime, and cover them at night from the dew. When they are dried, take out the stones--then put them into a cask, and add as much of the best must as to cover them; when the grapes are macerated and filled, on the sixth day take them out and press them, and thus draw off the passum. Columell. lib. xii. cap. 39. This resembles nothing in modern use so much as raisin wine. Other inferior kinds were also prepared, for which see Columella in the same chapter, and Pliny, lib. xiv. cap. 9.

47. Starch, amylum, so called from its being prepared without a mill. Though the process among the ancients differed a little from the present, yet the effect of the operation is the same.--See Dioscorid. lib. ii. cap. 311.

48. Tragum was made from wheat in the same manner as ptisan from barley. Plin. lib. xviii. cap. 7.

49. Wombs of hogs.) This amongst the ancients was accounted a delicate dish; it is now entirely disused. The butchers give that part the name of the bearing bag.

50. Garum was a liquor made of the intestines of fish macerated with salt. So that it was a kind of sanies of them in their putrescent state. It was formerly made of the fish, which the Greeks called garos; afterwards it was prepared from a great many more, so that the kinds of it are almost infinite. It bore a higher price than any thing, except unguents. One kind was of the colour of old mulse, and so sweet and thin, that it might be drunk. Plin. lib. xxxi, cap. 7 and 8.

51. Bulbusses.) The ancients had several kinds of bulbusses. Dioscorides mentions the bulbus esculentus, which he says is known to every body; it is good for the stomach and belly, of a reddish colour, and brought from Africa. But the bitter and squillaceous kind is fitter for the stomach, and helps concoction. All of them are acrid and heating. Pliny, lib. xix. cap. 5. reckons up many species. Most naturalists agree that they are not known now.

Lib. ii. cap. 389.

52. Pancake, Laganum.) This differed a little from our pancake, as they added to it cheese, pepper, saffron, cinnamon, &c.

53. Those called crustumina, &c.) Pliny observes that such fruits as these have taken their names, either from their planters, countries, or the persons whose taste they pleased. All these pears and apples are reckoned among the best kinds by him, lib. xv. cap. 14. and 15. as also by Columella, lib. v. cap. 10.

54. Wormwood.) In Linden and Almeloveen the word absinthium is followed by murices, purpuræ, cochleæ, which are omitted in all Morgagni’s editions, except Ruellius and the MS. And as they appear redundant here, the same words occurring a few lines after, I have taken no notice of them.

Ep. 6. p. 145.

55. Resinated.) This is made in different countries. It was very common in Gaul, where the grapes not thoroughly ripening by reason of the cold, the wines turned sharp, unless mixed with resin. The resin, together with the bark of the tree, was either cut small, or powdered, and mixed with the wine. Some separated the resin from it by straining, others let it stand. Such wines become sweet by age. Vide Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xiv. cap. 20. Columella, lib. xii. cap. 23. et Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 817.

56. Pecten was a name for shell fish striated like cockles.

57. Murex and purpura.) These fishes afforded the purple dye, and their difference was not considerable according to ancient authors, but they are not known now.

58. Sweet bread mentioned before, viz. chap. 18.

59. Scarus, taken for the scar or char, lolligo calamary, or sleeve-fish, locustus lobster, polypus pourcountrel.

60. Pelorides.) This was a sort of shell fish, so called from Pelorus, a promontory in Sicily, supposed by some to be cockles.

61. Soft water, &c.) The reading in Linden is Aqua, omnia tenera, tepida, &c. but it is not probable our author would have expressed himself so loosely as to say aqua, without any epithet. By making a small change in the order of the words, we find this properly opposed to aqua dura, said in chap. XXX. to bind the belly; I have therefore read with Constantine, Cæsar, Stephens, and several others, Aqua tenera, omnia tepida, dulcia.

62. Torminalia.) These, says Pliny, are the fourth species of the service fruit, and probably called so from being used as a remedy; that is, for the dysentery, as appears by the name. Lib. xv. c. 21.

63. Sordid wool, Lana succida, by Dioscorides called εἰρίον οἰσυπηρὸν. The more oily sordes it contained, it was reckoned so much the better and more emollient, upon account of its œsypum, the preparation of which will be mentioned in its proper place. The wool about the neck and inside of the thighs was most esteemed. Dioscorid. lib. ii. cap. 720.

64. Cimolian chalk.) This had its name from Cimolus an island in the Cretan sea. There are two kinds of it, one white, and the other inclining to purple. The first by Dale, is thought to resemble tobacco-pipe-clay; and the second fullers earth. Vide Plin. lib. xxxv. cap. 17. et Dioscorid. lib. v. cap. 950.

65. Tarras, gypsum, is a-kin to lime; for it is procured by burning a stone, which ought to resemble the alabaster, or marble. The best kind is made from lapis specularis. Plin. lib. xxxvi. cap. 24. Amongst the moderns some take this to be the calx of alabaster, others of Muscovy glass, others of the selenites.

66. Oil of quinces.) Oleum vel unguentum melinum, according to Dioscorides, was prepared by infusing and boiling some aromatics in oil, and afterwards macerating quinces in it, and thus letting them stand till the oil had imbibed the strength of the quinces. Others made it with quinces alone. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 56.

67. Or myrtles.) This is prepared by bruising and pressing the tender leaves of the black myrtle, and mixing their juice with an equal quantity of the oil of unripe olives, then boiling them together, and taking off whatever swims upon the top. Some thicken the oil first with pomegranate bark, cypress, &c. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 49.

68. Of roses.) This is made by boiling the juncus odoratus with water and oil, and after straining, fresh roses are infused in the oil: they are stirred frequently with the hands rubbed with honey, and squeezed. When they have stood for a night, they are pressed out. A second and third kind of rose oil is prepared, by infusing the same roses in fresh quantities of oil. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 54.

69. Bitter oil.) This has probably been prepared from the wild olive; for Pliny says, such is thin, and much more bitter than what is made from the olive. Lib. xv. cap. 7.

70. Made of far.) Far is a species of wheat.--Columella reckons four kinds of it. Pliny says it is the hardest of all, and firmest against winter. It was called also semen adoreum. It was the first grain the Romans used. Pliny, lib. xvii. cap. 8, et Columella, lib. ii. cap. 6.

71. Cyprine oil was made from the tree called cyprus in Egypt, according to Pliny--And in his time some conjectured it to be the same with the ligustrum of Italy. Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xii. c. 24.

72. Oil of iris.) The oil is first inspissated by boiling it with water, and the involucrum of the fruit of the palm tree (called by Dioscorides, spatha). When this is done, an equal quantity of bruised iris is infused with this inspissated and aromatized oil, which stands for two days and two nights, and then is strongly expressed. A more fragrant kind is prepared by inspissating the oil with balsam-wood and calamus. After expression, a fresh quantity of iris may be added, if it be desired stronger. Dioscorid. lib. i. cap. 67.

73. Nitre.) So much has been said by modern authors concerning the nitre of the ancients, that it would be impertinent to give a particular account of it here. The greatest plenty was produced in Egypt, in the lands which the Nile had overflowed. Most naturalists believe it to have been a native alkaline salt. Pliny says, it was adulterated in Egypt by lime, but that trick was easily discovered by putting it in water, when the true nitre would dissolve, and the lime not. Plin. lib. xxxi. cap. 10. where a long account of it may be seen.

NOTES