Ancient recipes and culinary criticism. 1st Latin edition, 1556 Dipnosophistarum by Athenaeus.

The first complete Latin edition of the ancient (3rd century A.D.) Athenaeus' work on banqueting; the work is presented as conversations, but touches on ancient societal norms, food recipes, food criticism, politics, love and many other topics.

Of note, the oldest known "recipe" assigned to a named chef is found in this work, when a short recipe is attributed to Mithaecus (fifth century B.C.) on the preparation of fish (on page 133 of this edition).

Related, we have one of the oldest examples of food criticism, where Archestratus (page 117) states that the preparation of fish, in the style of Mithaecus' culture, is disgusting and should only be reserved for covering up the flavor of poor-quality fish.

This particular copy has a funny annotation on page 7, where the note taker re-writes (perhaps, with disbelief) the statement that an aphrodisiac has the ability for the user to partake in intercourse 70 times.

The Italian Wikipedia describes the book well, and here I'll post an edited translation -

Books I-III constitute a sort of "appetizer": after the dialogic introduction, we talk about the authors who wrote about symposia, and then touch on the lives of the Homeric heroes and describe wines and specialties of the Greek world (book I), with the differences between wine and water, the description of a dining room and a review of typical appetizers, such as fruit and foods to munch on (book II). The appetizers review closes with a complete list of seafood, fried foods, bread, salted fish appetizers and omelettes (book III).

From the fourth book Athenaeus begins to describe the actual banquet: it begins by talking about banquets and symposia that are famous, even excessive, and then moves on to discuss cooks and musical instruments. From the private banquet, the author moves on to the public and Homeric ones, to criticize the previous literary symposiums, from Plato to Xenophon to Epicurus.

Books VI-VIII deal with fish, with episodes on parasites and flatterers (book VI), famous cooks and criticism of hedonism (book VII) and closing this triptych with the mirabilia on fish, the famous fish eaters and the medical and dietary point of view on the fish diet. Book IX deals with meat, reviewing cured meats and meats in general, not excluding game and the art of the scalco.

In the diptych X-XI, Athenaeus deals with wines, dealing with drunkenness, heavy drinkers and games related to the symposium, not sparing the catalog of wine cups and, speaking of symposium, starting a close analysis of Plato's Symposium.

The discourse becomes more salacious in books XII-XIII, when the author describes excesses and oddities related to luxury and focuses in a monographic book (the XIII) on women, talking about famous ethers of the past and their lovers.

Finally, to close the symposium, Athenaeus talks about desserts such as sweets, fruit, cheeses and the art of pastry (book XIV) and ending with the cottabo, crowns, perfumes, reporting a collection of Attic scholii.

Bibliographic Details -

Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC) number 811384, not rare, many copies in the world's finest libraries - BnF, Trinity College (Cambridge), BL, Merton and Bodleian (Oxford), among others. Only four copies recorded to the U.S. (Harry Ransom, Chicago U., New York Public Library, U. of Penn.)

Physical Attributes -

Measures approx. 31.5 x 21 x 2 cm. Mottled leather binding. Spine with six raised bands; 6 compartments with central gilt ornament, one compartment with title in gilt on tan morocco. Edges sprinkled red. Printer's device to title page.

Pages - xii, 288, [12 - Index]

Collation - *6, A-Z6, AA6, Aa6. Collates complete.

Condition -

See pictures. Leather binding is well-worn, with corner bumps, rubs, a little drying, chip at head and tail of spine, edge and corner wear, etc. Shelf mark ticket on pastedown, ghosted flyleaf. Text block toned throughout, with occasional page edge chip, fox mark, thumb, dog-eared corner, errant ink mark, candle-ember mark, etc. Occasional annotations. Title page with name in old hand. 1st three leaves with small hole near top edge, no text affected. Marginal annotations to "argumentum" and underlining. p51 with ink mark. Marginal annotations were trimmed with binding (18th century binding). Leaves Q2 and Q3 with some odd foxing, like something got on the paper (food prep?). A small singular wormhole near gutter, no text affected.