Apician Morsels; or Tales of the Table, Kitchen, and Larder: with reflections on the Dietic Productions of Early Writers; on the Customs of the Romans in Eating and Drinking; on Table Ceremonies, and Rules of Conviviality and Good Breeding; with select Epicurean Precepts, Gourmond Maxims and Medicines, &c. &c.
London: Whittaker, Treacher and Co., 1834.
Duodecimo (17.5 x 11.5 cm.), viii, 348 pages. Illustrated with a frontispiece and one additional plate by Robert Cruikshank. Second? edition. The first was issued in 1829, A humorous, but informative look at the history of food. The author's pseudonymous name, "Dick Humelbergius Secundus", is an allusion to Gabriel Hummelberger (Humelbergius), the sixteenth-century annotator of the work of the Roman chef Apicius. Some have attributed this work to the Gothic novelist William Beckford, although Denise Gigante of Stanford suspects the hand of Richard Chenevix, reviewer for the Edinburgh Review. Some pencil notes and some wear to a few pages and to end matter, bookseller's catalogue description (incorrectly stating this as the first edition) pasted in. Rebound in quarter red morocco by Sangorski and Sutcliffe in 1949. [Bitting, page 237].
Price: $300.00