"_Que res tota spectat medicinae partem, quae diaitetike
appelatur, et victu medetur: at in hac tes diaitetikes
parte totus est Apicius noster._"

In our opinion, unfounded of course by positive proof, the Apicius
book is somewhat of a gastronomic bible, consisting of ten different
books by several authors, originating in Greece and taken over by the
Romans along with the rest of Greek culture as spoils of war. These
books, or chapters, or fragments thereof, must have been in vogue long
before they were collected and assembled in the present form.
Editions, or copies of the same must have been numerous, either singly
or collectively, at the beginning of our era. As a matter of fact, the
Excerpts by Vinidarius, found in the _codex Salmasianus_ prove this
theory and give rise to the assumption that the Apicius book was a
standard work for cookery that existed at one time or other in a far
more copious volume and that the present Apicius is but a fragment of
a formerly vaster and more complete collection of culinary and medical
formulae.

Thus a fragmentary Apicius has been handed down to us in manuscript
form through the centuries, through the revolutionary era of Christian
ascendancy, through the dark ages down to the Renaissance. Unknown
agencies, mostly medical and monastic, stout custodians of antique
learning, reverent lovers of good cheer have preserved it for us until
printing made possible the book's wide distribution among the
scholars. Just prior to Gutenberg's epoch-making printing press there
was a spurt of interest in our book in Italy, as attested to by a
dozen of manuscripts, copied in the fourteenth and the fifteenth
centuries.

Apicius may justly be called the world's oldest cookery book; the very
old Sanscrit book, Vasavarayeyam, unknown to us except by name, is
said to be a tract on vegetarian cookery.

The men who have preserved this work for future generations, who have
made it accessible to the public (as was Lister's intention) have
performed a service to civilization that is not to be underestimated.
They have done better than the average archaeologist with one or
another find to his credit. The Apicius book is a living thing,
capable of creating happiness. Some gastronomic writers have pointed
out that the man who discovers a new dish does more for humanity than
the man who discovers a new star, because the discovery of a new dish
affects the happiness of mankind more pleasantly than