The Humanist at the Table

Italian humanists’ discoveries of ancient texts and printed editionsof such ancient works as Lucretius’ De rerum natura, Plato’s Symposiumor Apicius’ De re coquinaria strongly influenced the renewal of theEpicurean category of pleasure (voluptas) and created a new approachto eating. Many Italian humanists began emphasizing bodily needsand stressed their importance. We can find these ideas in the worksof Lorenzo Valla (De voluptate, 1431), Marsilio Ficino (De voluptate,1457) or Bartolomeo Platina (the author of the first printed cookbookDe honesta voluptate et valetudine, ca. 1465-68) who recognizedthat food could be also consumed for pleasure. The phenomenonof the philosophical and literary banquet became common practiceamong Italian, and later also Polish, humanists. Such associations asthe Roman Academy, Florentine Academy, or Polish Sodalitas litterariaVistulana were the place of humanistic discussion, which was valuedmore than luxurious food. It is reflected in 16th-century Polish poetry(Filippo Buonaccorsi „Callimachus”, Conrad Celtis; Paweł z Krosna; JanDantyszek „Dantiscus” and others) and philosophical treaties such asMikołaj Rej’s Wizerunek własny, 1558, inspired by Palingenius’ Zodiacusvitae, or Łukasz Górnicki’s Dworzanin polski, 1566, inspired byBaldassare Castiglione’s Il corteggiano. The quoted authors recommendmoderation in drinking and criticize Polish and German drunkenness.Dining with friends could also serve as remedy for vanitas or all kinds ofsorrow, according to the tradition of Anacreontic and Horatian poetry.We can see it clearly in Foricoenia of Jan Kochanowski (1584), where thejoy of drinking wine and singing at the table interweaves with reflectionon the human condition and vanishing.