Cookbooks 12: Giacomo Castelvetro

12. Giacomo Castelvetro. This is technically about the oldest cookbook in the collection, first published in 1614. Its purpose is age-old too, to convince the English that they should eat more greens. Castelvetro is the forerunner of many authors in this series, an Italian introducing good Italian cooking and mysterious foreign ingredients to a suspicious audience. That he finds himself in London at all is due to his being that conflicted individual of the times, an Italian Protestant in need of protection. It’s a favourite period work, pounced on at a throwaway table of the Yarra Plenty Regional Library Service, Ivanhoe, Rosanna, Watsonia, Eltham sometime in the noughties. Gillian Riley’s translation, Jane Grigson’s Foreword, and the fruttivendolo artwork combine to make a fine History Play production. Castelvetro’s style is appealing. His concerns are health, balanced diet, simplicity of presentation, and freshness. (His entry on Rice indicates that risotto must still have been in its early stages, and he from Modena.) The author had been Italian teacher to James VI of Scotland, influential in literary circles, and the first known teacher of the language at Oxford. But his return to England now that James was I of England and Ireland came with pressures, having just escaped near imprisonment back home under the Inquisition. He sought the patronage of Lucy Russell, Countess of Bedford, familiar to some readers as patron of Ben Jonson and John Donne. However, she could not assist in promotion of his cookbook as her own fortunes had recently taken a blow. Castelvetro died in poverty and distress in 1616, only a month before the death of William Shakespeare.

Three entries.

Strawberries.

In Italy, it is only in spring that we have these fragrant and health-giving berries, whereas you happy mortals, though you do not get them so early, have them twice a year, in mid June and in October. Last year I was in Cambridge on 28 October, and was amazed to be eating strawberries by the plateful, not just one or two. They were exquisite.

Strawberries are one of the healthiest fruits to eat and would not even harm an invalid. A decoction made from both leaves and roots is good to drink for inflammation of the liver and regulates the kidneys and the bladder. Used as a mouthwash it hardens the gums, strengthens the teeth and clears catarrh. (page 71)

Rice.

Then we have rice, which is eaten in many countries, but grown in few. We plant it in low-lying places, under water. It has a good yield, and is a most useful crop. It is a good food for the able-bodied, but hard to digest. The Turks eat more rice than any other nation, and cook it in may different and delicate ways. (page 103)

Figs.

I must not forget to mention figs, which we have in vast quantities, and which everyone eats raw. We do not have many dried figs in my part of Italy, though they are common in other regions, and are very good indeed, particularly with almonds. Confectioners preserve them whole with peeled almonds in the shape of Dutch cheeses, a delicate sweetmeat, which they keep to eat during Lent.

Dried figs, roasted a little and eaten at bedtime, will help to clear up those nasty coughs that linger after a bad cold. But make sure the figs are not too stale. (page 111)

Why did Dante write The Divine Comedy?

This is one of two short papers given by Philip Harvey at the first Spiritual Reading Group session for 2014 on Tuesday the 18 th of February in the Carmelite Library in Middle Park. He also gave a paper on that occasion, which can be found on the Library blog, entitled ‘A Rationale for Purgatory’ . Nadezhda Mandelstam recalls in one of her books how her husband, the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam, would say that when reading poetry we can spend a great deal of time discussing what it means, but the first and main question about a poem is not what does it mean, but why was it written. That is the place to start. Here are eleven reasons that I offer quietly to help us think about this poem: Why did Dante write The Divine Comedy? You may have other reasons and these are invited. We will spend most of our time today looking at meanings, but also at why. I wrote these out as they occurred to me, so there is no priority order. 1. He wrote the poem because ...

The Walk (Seamus Heaney)

This poem was read aloud at Janet Campbell’s funeral in Hamilton in Victoria in December 2006. Janet was a great lover of poetry all her life, a great reader of poetry, and she read everything of Seamus Heaney. Indeed, when she worked in Melbourne or London bookshops Janet would grab hold of Faber pre-publication copies of Heaney if they came into the backroom, and disappear for days, copying lines onto postcards for her friends, transferring lines into her lifetime of diaries. Diaries that were also a lifeline. Janet read everything, but Heaney was one of the regulars. Seamus Heaney keeps a tight line. He is rarely though completely opaque and the way into this poem is the word ‘longshot’. We only find in the second of the two poems that we are being asked to look at two photographs. Or, at least, poems that are like photographs. Or, better still, strong memories that have taken on in the mind the nature of longshots. The two poems in one are reminders of close relationships. ...

The Poetry of Rowan Williams

Rowan Williams delivers the twelfth John Rylands Poetry Reading last year This is a paper given by Philip Harvey in the Hughes Room at St Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne on Sunday the 6 th of December as one in an Advent series on religious poets. The original title of the paper was ‘The text that maps our losses and longings’. Everything Rowan Williams says and writes reveals a person with a highly developed sensitivity to language, its force, directness, instantaneousness, its subtlety, indirectness, longevity. A person though may speak three languages fluently and read at least nine languages with ease, as he does, and still not engage with language in the way we are looking at here. Because Rowan is unquestionably someone with a poetic gift. By that I don’t just mean he writes poetry, I mean he engages with the life of words, their meanings, ambiguities, colours, their playfulness, invention, sounds. We find this in those writings of his that delibe...

READINGS OF THE WORK BY PHILIP HARVEY

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