Translations from Period Sources

Due to the volume of translations, translations from each author are on their own page, with just the author's name and book title listed here. Those with a blurb about the author still on this page have yet to have any translations added.

These are my own translations from period works, the majority of which are to do with Italian cooking. Quite often these are rough-and-ready translations, as they are for my own working. As my Italian improves, and as I become more familiar with styles of writing, the quality of the translations is also improving. I am most interested in understanding the recipe, so extraneous information (such as in Nostradamus, who can gush on a bit about how wonderful his own recipe is) tends to be the roughest. One day, maybe, once I have finished translating all I want and run out of other projects, I will work on polishing up the earliest translations. In the meantime, feel free to use the translations as they are if you would like - but bear in mind that I am an untrained, amateur translator so it seems likely that there will be flaws in my work.

Where I get really stuck on a term or phrase, and am unsure of the exact meaning, I will include the original text and comment on what decision I've made (if any) about the translation at the base of the recipe.

I'll also make a comment if I come across a word that I just think is really interesting or cool.

You can't do much historic translation with the aid of only a modern dictionary. Fortunately, Florio (1614) is an excellent Italian-English dictionary, and Cotgrave (1611) is fantastic for French-English.

Fiorauanti Bolognese, Leornardo: Del Compendio de i Secreti dell'Eccell. Medico, & Cirugico M. Leonardo Fiorauanti Bolognese, Libri Cinque. (Vincenzo Valgrisi, Venice, 1554)

Messisbugo, Cristoforo: Banchetti composizioni di vivande e apparecchio generale (Lucio Spineda, Venice, 1610)

Romoli, Domenico: La Singolare Dottrina Di M. Domenico Romoli... (Gio. Battista Bonfadino, Venetia, 1593)

Rosselli, Giovanne: Epulario: qual tratta del modo di cucinare ogni carne, vccelli, pesci, & ultra qualita di viuande (Altobello Salicato, Vinegia, 1596)