Book Description

Perhaps assembled around the fifth century CE or earlier, Apicius, often known as De re culinaria or De re coquinaria (On the Subject of Cooking), is a body of Roman cooking recipes. With subsequent recipes adding Vulgar Latin (such as ficatum and bullire) to earlier recipes employing Classical Latin, its vocabulary is in many respects closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin.Based on the fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE," or rather, because a few recipes are attributed to Apicius in the text, the book has been ascribed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius: Patinam Apicianam sic facies (IV, 14). It has alternatively been ascribed to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a Roman gourmet who flourished during Tiberius's rule sometime in the first century CE. Furthermore, numerous Roman chefs from the first century CE could have penned the book.