Cheese’s Revenge

This was written as a contribution to the conference ‘Lac d’amour. Il latte e i suoi derivati’ held at Vicenza in March 2001 and organized by the association called Homo Edens, presided over by Oddone Longo, Professor of Greek Literature at the University of Padua.  Homo Edens is devoted to the study of all aspects of food and drink since antiquity – anthropological, biological, chemical and historical. Earlier topics have been wine (1989), water (1991), bread (1993), oil (1995) and pork (1997). The translation of this article from the Italian was undertaken by Harlequin Language Services, but any errors should be ascribed to the editor. The article concerns the 15th-century work Summa Lacticiniorum (everything to know about dairy products) by the physician Pantaleone da Confienza, a work remarkable for its novelty, specialist content and manner of organization.