The pantropheon: or, History of food, and its preparation, from the earliest ages of the world / by A. Soyer. Embellished with forty-two steel plates, illustrating the greatest gastronomic marvels of antiquity.

  • Soyer, Alexis, 1809-1858.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pantropheon: or, History of food, and its preparation, from the earliest ages of the world / by A. Soyer. Embellished with forty-two steel plates, illustrating the greatest gastronomic marvels of antiquity. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    perceived that their laborious duties required more substantial food.41 The Romans made their gruel of all kinds of flour. King Numa (1715 B.c.), guided by the advice of the nymph, Egeria, taught his subjects the art of parching corn, of converting it into flour by means of mortars, and of making that gruel with which he liked to regale himself. This good prince was rather fond of interfering in what did not concern him, and the royal compound was afterwards cooked in the public bakehouses, which the piety of the sovereign placed under the protection of the powerful Fornax, a goddess unknown till then, and who soon became the object of general and fervent worship. There is but one step from gruel to bread: tbe Romans perceived it. Thus this favourite dish lost its reputation, and the worship of Fornax somewhat cooled. But, on the other hand, there was still the smell of cakes on all sides; cooking on the hearth, on the coals, in small bell- stoves, and in large baking pans, until ultimately they became acquainted with the use of ovens.43 At last, Rome began to have them built, under the reign of Tar- quinius Superbus, about 630 years before the Christian era. They were solid constructions, immoveable, and very like those of the present day.44 Men were employed to keep up the necessary degree of heat; and their useful profession (thanks to the strange caprices which so tyrannically rule the social hierarchy) became one of the vilest and most sordid occupations in the capital of the world.4'’ These ovens were ordered to be built far away from all edifices, in order to prevent accidents by fire ;45 an excellent precaution, where so many incautious and merry old gossips came daily to bake their biead. Once there, those worthy plebeians amused themselves by giving full scope to their noisy fun, slandering their neighbours freely and charitably, telling each other all the little scandal they had picked up here and there, among the good souls in their neighbourhood. Hence these public places of labour and incessant babbling were called the “ gossip bakehouses.”47 These joyous meetings continued until the arrival of Greek bakers, 170 years b.c., who followed the victorious armies of the republic on their return from Macedonia.48 These new operatives effected a complete revolution in the art of making bread : they reformed the taste of their masters, and, by degrees, the proverbial frugality of the