The Humanist at the Table

Abstract

Italian humanists’ discoveries of ancient texts and printed editions of such ancient works as Lucretius’ De rerum natura, Plato’s Symposium or Apicius’ De re coquinaria strongly influenced the renewal of the Epicurean category of pleasure (voluptas) and created a new approach to eating. Many Italian humanists began emphasizing bodily needs and stressed their importance. We can find these ideas in the works of Lorenzo Valla (De voluptate, 1431), Marsilio Ficino (De voluptate, 1457) or Bartolomeo Platina (the author of the first printed cookbook De honesta voluptate et valetudine, ca. 1465-68) who recognized that food could be also consumed for pleasure. The phenomenon of the philosophical and literary banquet became common practice among Italian, and later also Polish, humanists. Such associations as the Roman Academy, Florentine Academy, or Polish Sodalitas litteraria Vistulana were the place of humanistic discussion, which was valued more than luxurious food. It is reflected in 16th-century Polish poetry (Filippo Buonaccorsi „Callimachus”, Conrad Celtis; Paweł z Krosna; Jan Dantyszek „Dantiscus” and others) and philosophical treaties such as Mikołaj Rej’s Wizerunek własny, 1558, inspired by Palingenius’ Zodiacus vitae, or Łukasz Górnicki’s Dworzanin polski, 1566, inspired by Baldassare Castiglione’s Il corteggiano. The quoted authors recommend moderation in drinking and criticize Polish and German drunkenness. Dining with friends could also serve as remedy for vanitas or all kinds of sorrow, according to the tradition of Anacreontic and Horatian poetry. We can see it clearly in Foricoenia of Jan Kochanowski (1584), where the joy of drinking wine and singing at the table interweaves with reflection on the human condition and vanishing.