The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : 500-year-old guide to good health

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Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

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Opinion - News Analysis

500-year-old guide to good health

Lucy Atkins

TheTacuinum Sanitatiscontains a mix of good sense and utter nonsense.

WHEN IT comes to lifestyle gurus, you can forget Kabbalistic rituals, Atkins diets or total-makeover TV shows, because a Renaissance manuscript, the Tacuinum Sanitatis (Table of Health) got there first.

A series of 130 coloured drawings (on view at a London gallery next month before being sold), it contains all you need to know about living a more "balanced" life and covers anything from what not to wear, to how to exercise, eat, farm, shop and cook. It is, according to medieval manuscripts specialist Alixe Bovey, "a cross between Gillian McKeith's You Are What You Eat and Mrs. Beaton's Household Management" and like all good lifestyle manuals it has "some highly sensible advice and some absolutely crazy stuff mixed in."

It is certainly based on notions of moderation and balance that would not be out of place in your average Sunday colour supplement. Health essentials include air, food and drink, movement and rest, sleep, and the moderation of extreme emotions. "The secret of health," it maintains, "is the proper balance of all these elements." Specific advice — all beautifully illustrated — ranges from what to wear in different climates; how pasta can upset the stomach, and the benefits of a good chat. The manuscript, produced in Renaissance Italy by a group of artists in Andrea Mantegna's circle, is one of four (the others are dotted around Europe) and together they are the main surviving visual record of the rural and urban environment of that time.

"The whole idea of keeping everything in balance," says Dr. Bovey, "is really very contemporary given our interest in holistic and preventive medicine." Our latest dieting trend, for instance, is "mood food." Indeed, the Food and Mood Project, a web-based dietary self-help service backed by the mental health charity Mind claims that research shows "low-fat diets can make you depressed." Shocking news, but the Tacuinum got there 500-odd years ago when it advocated "duck rubbed with oil and stuffed with spices" as the ideal food for "fattening up a melancholic person."

The Tacuinum (which Dr. Bovey says would have sat on the shelves of very wealthy art patrons next to an illustrated herbal) also contains a wealth of advice on herbs. In one picture, a man dressed in red is harvesting fennel, which, the text claims, is good for the eyesight and for fevers but can impede menstruation. Take a look at one of the zillion health websites, and fennel still figures large with claims that it can regulate hormone levels, ease stomach cramps and counter high blood pressure.

Similarly, our recent scientific breakthroughs when it comes to exercise and mood would be unlikely to raise an eyebrow in 15th-century Padua. Exercise can be a fantastic weapon against depression, recent studies have shown. But the Tacuinum could surely have saved our researchers years of data collection.

Of course, like all great lifestyle manuals, there is some barmy stuff to contend with. No modern-day doctor would be likely to advocate eating (frequently poisonous) lupins to "thicken the blood." And even the most unhinged modern naturopath would surely balk at suggesting a link between egg whites and the development of freckles.

Sadly, lifestyle nonsense is not confined to the Renaissance. Far from it. Martha Stewart, middle America's favourite felon, is currently advising us in her online Whole Living Action Plan that "mould and mildew are more than creepy looking. They can zap your physical and mental energy." Eradicate your mould and your life will be transformed. She should, perhaps, have checked the Tacuinum, as it is far more sensible on the subject of damp, pointing out that winter is dangerous for old people, who should sit by the fire in a warm room.

Still, the manuscript shows that Renaissance society was no less concerned with bizarre lifestyle advice than we are.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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500-year-old guide to good health