Anthimus was a Greek doctor condemned by the Emperor of Constantinople to a life of exile at the court of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, barbarian ruler of Italy at the beginning of the 6th century AD. In the course of his life in Ravenna he was sent as ambassador to the King of the Franks and, perhaps as a sweetener to his fierce yet royal host, wrote a letter about foods - which were good for you, which were bad, and in some cases how to cook and serve them. It may reasonably be called the first French cookery book. various errors of fact in earlier editions, a Latin text based on the editio princeps of 1864, a modern English translation, and a detailed commentary on the work itself, with many cross-references to classical medical treatises, the literature of classical cookery and modern scholarship insofar as it knows anything of the food and cookery of the early Merovingian Franks. linguistic transition from classical to medieval Latin, but rarely has it been treated for what it was - a cookery and medical treatise. It shows cooking on the cusp between the bread-, vegetable- and oil-based cuisine of the Mediterranean and the meat-dominated cookery of the northern forests.

This book is an analysis of thinking, remembering and reminiscing according to ancient authors, and their medieval readers. The author argues that behind the various medieval methods in interpreting texts of the past lie two apparently incompatible theories of human knowledge and remembering, as well as two differing attitudes to matter and intellect. The book comprises a series of studies which take ancient texts as evidence of the past, and show how medieval readers and writers understood them. The studies confirm that medieval and renaissance interpretations and uses of the past differ greatly from modern interpretation and yet betray many startling continuities between modern and ancient and medieval theories.

The Book of Memory is a magisterial and beautifully illustrated account of the workings and function of memory in medieval society. Memory was the psychological faculty valued above all others in the period stretching from late antiquity through the Renaissance. The prominence given to memory has profound implications for the contemporary understanding of all creative activity, and the social role of literature and art. Drawing on a range of fascinating examples from Dante, Chaucer, and Aquinas to the symbolism of illuminated manuscripts, this unusually wide-ranging book offers new insights into the medieval world.

Essays on the practical aspects of medieval European medicine.

The medieval Englishman, John of Salisbury, was a philosopher and humanist, theologian and bishop, courtier and diplomat, poet and political thinker. This book provides a reassessment of his life and work. It features 25 papers by international scholars.

Originally published in 1936, this book deals with the first writings of a medical nature known to be associated with any English hospital and their mysterious author, Johannes de Mirfeld. Hartley and Aldridge provide the original Latin text of all of Mirfeld's works, along with an English translation on each facing page. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in medical history.

John Dee (1527-1609) has emerged as one of the most influential figures in the intellectual history of Tudor England. Though best known in his own time as a mathematician, he had a host of other interests (including navigation, astrology and astronomy, cabbala, alchemy, paracelsian medicine, and Welsh history) and was one of the first scholars to advocate collecting manuscripts from the dissolved monastic libraries. Indeed his own library was perhaps the largest assembled in England by one man before 1600. This study, which includes a facsimile of the detailed catalogue of 1583, recounts for the first time the growth of Dee's library, the raid made upon it during his absence in Poland, and its dispersal after his death. The book also describes the location of his surviving books and manuscripts.