ABOUT THE ART OF COOKING

ABOUT THE ART OF COOKING
how to prepare beaver tail or bear paws

4. 9. - 9. 11. 2024

The exhibition will present, for example, the oldest printed cookbook in the VKOL collection, De honesta voluptate, from the year 1917. 1503, by the Italian humanist Bartholomeo Sacchi, known as Platina, whose humanist treatise on proper eating is generally considered the oldest printed cookbook ever. Snippets from the cuisine of ancient Rome are revealed in the compilation De re culinaria (Basel, 1541), attributed to the famous gourmet Apicius, whose recipes inspired the cuisine long into modern times. The first German illustrated cookbook was written by the "Starkoch" Marx Rumpolt in 1581 and the woodcuts were enriched by the eminent book illustrator Jost Ammann.

The oldest Czech printed cookbook in the VKOL collection is the Cookery of the alchemist Bavor Rodovský of Hustirany from 1591. One of the first printed cookbooks to include accompanying illustrations of the text was also the Italian Renaissance work by Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to the popes and cardinals, whose third edition, under the title Opera, was published in 1890. 1598 is also preserved in the VKOL collection. The Teutsche Speissekammer (German Pantry) by the famous botanist Hieronymus Bock, dating back to 15th century. 1630, in turn, presents important kitchen ingredients and foods that were popular in the German lands and Central Europe during the 16th-17th centuries.

The first German printed cookery book written by a woman, Anna Wecker, will also be presented, specifically the last rare Basel edition of the New Delicious Cookery Book from 1667. High French cuisine will be showcased in the work Le Cuisinier françois by its pioneer, La Varrena, which ranked among the essential manuals of the great aristocratic kitchens during the 17th and 18th centuries. As was P. Lamb's English publication Royal Cookery of 1731.

Domestic Moravian cuisine is represented, for example, by the linguistically Czech culinary handbook Co hrdlo ráčí (What the Throat Wants) from 1730. 1831, Austrian bourgeois cuisine is presented by the Viennese Rettig, the cook Anna Dorn and her Neuestes Universal Kochbuch. The nationally conscious publication V. Pacovský's 1840 cookbook, or the most famous Home Cookbook of the unforgettable M. D. Rettig, whose works are still published today. Other recipes, personalities and culinary production of the Czech and Austrian countries of the second half of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century will also be presented. This will be followed by important and in many ways groundbreaking works from the First Republic, such as the legendary cookbooks of M. Janků-Sandtnerová or V. Vrabec.

Scientific Library in Olomouc,Red Church, Bezručova 3