University of Chicago_

No translation of Apicius into English has yet been published. The
book has been printed again and again in Latin and has been translated
into Italian and German. It is unnecessary to here give historic
details regarding the work as Mr. Vehling goes fully and admirably
into the subject. In 1705 the book was printed in Latin at London,
with notes by Dr. Martinus Lister. It caused some stir in the England
of that time. In a very curious book, The Art of Cookery, in Imitation
of Horace's Art of Poetry, with Some Letters to Dr. Lister and Others,
Dr. Wm. King says:

"The other curiosity is the admirable piece of C{oe}lius
Apicius, '_De Opsoniis et condimentis sive arte
coquinaria, Libri decem_' being ten books of soups and
sauces, and the art of cookery, as it is excellently
printed for the doctor, who in this important affair, is
not sufficiently communicative....

"I some days ago met with an old acquaintance, of whom I
inquired if he has seen the book concerning soups and
sauces? He told me he had, but that he had but a very
slight view of it, the person who was master of it not
being willing to part with so valuable a rarity out of
his closet. I desired him to give me some account of it.
He says that it is a very handsome octavo, for, ever
since the days of Ogilvy, good paper and good print, and
fine cuts, make a book become ingenious and brighten up
an author strangely. That there is a copious index; and
at the end a catalogue of all the doctor's works,
concerning cockles, English beetles, snails, spiders,
that get up into the air and throw us down cobwebs; a
monster vomited up by a baker and such like; which if
carefully perused, would wonderfully improve us."

More than two hundred years have passed and we now have an edition of
this curious work in English. And our edition has nothing to lose by
comparison with the old one. For this, too, is a handsome book, with
good paper and good print and fine cuts. And the man who produces it
can equally bear comparison with Dr. Lister and more earlier
commentators and editors whom he quotes--Humelbergius and Caspar
Barthius.

The preparation of such a book is no simple task and requires a rare
combination of qualities. Mr. Vehling possesses this unusual
combination. He was born some forty-five years ago in the small town
of Duelken on the German-Dutch frontie