Apicio – De re coquinaria
Apicius – On the Cooking of the Lord VATICAN APOSTOLIC LIBRARY (Urb. Lat. 1146)
It is not a simple recipe book: it is the voice of imperial Rome that speaks through flavoursThe Emperors' Cook
Marcus Gavius Apicius is remembered as the most celebrated chef of ancient Rome. He lived between Augustus and Tiberius, a man of extraordinary wealth, a lover of opulence and culinary experimentation. His opulent banquets became legendary, making him both a controversial and admired figure. His De re coquinaria is the oldest complete cookbook to have survived: over 500 recipes that testify not only to the tastes of the era, but also to Rome's commercial, cultural, and social power. This immortal text influenced European cuisine for centuries and is now considered a cornerstone of world gastronomic history.Want more information about this product? Click here and fill out the form to be contacted by one of our curators.
1.199,00 €
- Description
Description
What are you buying?
- exact three-dimensional facsimile reproduction of the manuscript De re coquinaria
- critical commentary
- eco-friendly luxury box or, optionally, plexiglass display case
- certificate of the olive tree donated to Salento
- certificate of authenticity / colophon with identifying data of the work and required signatures
- exclusive access to the Antiquus reserved area with in-depth digital content
Technical data
- Place of preservation of the original: Vatican Apostolic Library
- Signature: Urb. Lat. 1146
- Dating: 851–875 AD
- Place of production: Monastery of Tours
- Page size: 23.5 × 19 cm
- Manuscript dimensions: 24.8 × 20.5 cm
- Maximum height: 2.5 cm
- Weight: approx. 1,200 g
- Binding: leather
- Number of pages: 58
- Pages with miniatures and drop caps: 6
- Gold decorated pages: 6
- Number of units produced: 500
- Of which on exclusive sale: 50
- Publisher: Imago, Rimini
- Condition: new
- Warranti 60 mounth
- Right of withdrawal within 30 days
Who is it intended for?
- collectors of facsimiles and rare books
- scholars of classical, medieval and gastronomic culture
- chefs, restaurateurs and culinary history enthusiasts
- libraries, foundations and cultural institutions
- who wants a truly memorable gift, one that doesn’t end in a
- drawer but in a display case
The Urb. Lat. 1146 manuscript, the thousand-year journey of the Apicius manuscript
Apicius’ De re coquinaria has reached us thanks to the manuscript Urb. Lat. 1146, now preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The codex was produced in the second half of the 9th century in the Abbey of Tours, one of the most important centers of book production in the Carolingian era. Written in Carolingian minuscule and enriched with illuminated pages, gold titles, and arched indexes, it is considered the oldest and most complete example of an ancient Roman recipe book.
In the 15th century, the manuscript entered the library of the Dukes of Urbino, thanks to Federico da Montefeltro, who included it among the masterpieces of his Renaissance collection. Its presence in this prestigious library underscores the text’s importance not only as a recipe book, but as a document of culture and civilization.
In 1657, with the transfer of the ducal library to Rome, De re coquinaria became part of the Urbinate Collection of the Vatican Apostolic Library, where it is still kept today.
Today, the facsimile allows you to own a work that has spanned over a thousand years of history, from the heart of Carolingian France to the Italian Renaissance, all the way to the halls of the world’s most important library. A unique heritage, faithfully reproduced and intended for collectors, institutions, and enthusiasts of gastronomic culture and rare books.
It is a precious testimony to Carolingian culture and Roman gastronomic tradition. Copied in the 9th century in Tours, it uses Carolingian minuscule, the elegant and legible script that became the model for copyists of the time, designed to ensure clarity and uniformity. The titles and summaries are instead written in rubricated Roman uncial, with the use of red to highlight the sections, a detail that enhances the structure and guides the reader.
The language is Late Latin, enriched with technical terms and popular forms, a sign of a text conceived not for scholars but for chefs and culinary professionals. The recipes are short, essential, without quantities or cooking times: direct instructions, which presupposed consolidated practical knowledge. This dry, technical style, however, is accompanied by an extraordinarily valuable visual apparatus, making the codex much more than a simple manual.
The six illuminated pages, the two pages on a purple background with gold letters and the four arched pages containing the index transform the De re coquinaria into a true luxury object, a symbol of Carolingian refinement and the centrality of cuisine in the culture of the elite.
Browsing the facsimile of this manuscript today means coming into contact with a work that combines technical rigor and artistic splendor, an ancient Roman recipe book that has traveled through the centuries to the Vatican Apostolic Library, and which continues to recount the greatness of Rome and the birth of the Italian gastronomic tradition.
A journey through recipes and flavors
In De re coquinaria we find dishes that still amaze today with their modernity and creativity.
Tyropatina: A dessert made with milk, honey, and eggs, the ancestor of our puddings.
Ficatum: Liver fattened with figs, from which the Italian word “fegato” (female liver) derives.
Isicia omentata: Spiced meatballs wrapped in fat.
Porcellum hortolanum: Suckling pig stuffed with aromatic herbs.
Aliter dulcia: Fried sweets drizzled with honey.
Each recipe is a fragment of the daily and aristocratic life of imperial Rome: a mix of local ingredients and spices from distant lands, reflecting Rome’s role as a center of trade and innovation.
Tradition and continuity
Apicius’s De re coquinaria is much more than an ancient recipe book: it is a founding testimony of Roman cuisine and, at the same time, one of the most authoritative roots of Italian cuisine.
This work recounts a tradition of taste based on technique, table culture, and conviviality, capable of evolving over the centuries without losing its identity.
Today, that same tradition has received extraordinary international recognition: Italian cuisine was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2025.
In this sense, De re coquinaria testifies to its most ancient origins, while its enduring authority is also confirmed by the fact that the Gastronomic Library of Academia Barilla preserves a copy of De re coquinaria, recognizing its historical and cultural value in the panorama of Italian gastronomy.
The Urb. Lat. 1146 manuscript, the thousand-year journey of the Apicius manuscript
Apicius’ De re coquinaria has reached us thanks to the manuscript Urb. Lat. 1146, now preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library.
The codex was produced in the second half of the 9th century in the Abbey of Tours, one of the most important centers of book production in the Carolingian era. Written in Carolingian minuscule and enriched with illuminated pages, gold titles, and arched indexes, it is considered the oldest and most complete example of an ancient Roman recipe book.
In the 15th century, the manuscript entered the library of the Dukes of Urbino, thanks to Federico da Montefeltro, who included it among the masterpieces of his Renaissance collection. Its presence in this prestigious library underscores the text’s importance not only as a recipe book, but as a document of culture and civilization.
In 1657, with the transfer of the ducal library to Rome, De re coquinaria became part of the Urbinate Collection of the Vatican Apostolic Library, where it is still kept today.
Today, the facsimile allows you to own a work that has spanned over a thousand years of history, from the heart of Carolingian France to the Italian Renaissance, all the way to the halls of the world’s most important library. A unique heritage, faithfully reproduced and intended for collectors, institutions, and enthusiasts of gastronomic culture and rare books.
It is a precious testimony to Carolingian culture and Roman gastronomic tradition. Copied in the 9th century in Tours, it uses Carolingian minuscule, the elegant and legible script that became the model for copyists of the time, designed to ensure clarity and uniformity. The titles and summaries are instead written in rubricated Roman uncial, with the use of red to highlight the sections, a detail that enhances the structure and guides the reader.
The language is Late Latin, enriched with technical terms and popular forms, a sign of a text conceived not for scholars but for chefs and culinary professionals. The recipes are short, essential, without quantities or cooking times: direct instructions, which presupposed consolidated practical knowledge. This dry, technical style, however, is accompanied by an extraordinarily valuable visual apparatus, making the codex much more than a simple manual.
The six illuminated pages, the two pages on a purple background with gold letters and the four arched pages containing the index transform the De re coquinaria into a true luxury object, a symbol of Carolingian refinement and the centrality of cuisine in the culture of the elite.
Browsing the facsimile of this manuscript today means coming into contact with a work that combines technical rigor and artistic splendor, an ancient Roman recipe book that has traveled through the centuries to the Vatican Apostolic Library, and which continues to recount the greatness of Rome and the birth of the Italian gastronomic tradition.
A journey through recipes and flavors
In De re coquinaria we find dishes that still amaze today with their modernity and creativity.
Tyropatina: A dessert made with milk, honey, and eggs, the ancestor of our puddings.
Ficatum: Liver fattened with figs, from which the Italian word “fegato” (female liver) derives.
Isicia omentata: Spiced meatballs wrapped in fat.
Porcellum hortolanum: Suckling pig stuffed with aromatic herbs.
Aliter dulcia: Fried sweets drizzled with honey.
Each recipe is a fragment of the daily and aristocratic life of imperial Rome: a mix of local ingredients and spices from distant lands, reflecting Rome’s role as a center of trade and innovation.
Tradition and continuity
Apicius’s De re coquinaria is much more than an ancient recipe book: it is a founding testimony of Roman cuisine and, at the same time, one of the most authoritative roots of Italian cuisine.
This work recounts a tradition of taste based on technique, table culture, and conviviality, capable of evolving over the centuries without losing its identity.
Today, that same tradition has received extraordinary international recognition: Italian cuisine was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2025.
In this sense, De re coquinaria testifies to its most ancient origins, while its enduring authority is also confirmed by the fact that the Gastronomic Library of Academia Barilla preserves a copy of De re coquinaria, recognizing its historical and cultural value in the panorama of Italian gastronomy.
An Imperial Cookbook in Your Collection: Rome’s Legacy Lives On
Preserving and collecting a work like this means coming into contact with one of the deepest roots of Mediterranean civilization and the Italian gastronomic tradition.
De re coquinaria is not only a testimony to the past, but a living work, which still today speaks of the value of knowledge, beauty, and conviviality as essential expressions of our culture.
Discovering this manuscript means tracing the origins of a heritage that continues to live on our tables. For collectors, bibliophiles, scholars, and enthusiasts of the culinary arts, this edition represents a rare opportunity to own a symbolic, authoritative, and timeless work.
Let yourself be guided to discover De re coquinaria and welcome into your collection an extraordinary testimony to the origins of Italian cuisine.
Frequently Asked Questions about Apicius – De re coquinaria and the facsimile
It is a facsimile of the manuscript Urb. Lat. 1146 of the Vatican Apostolic Library, which contains one of the most famous recipe books of the ancient world.
Tradition identifies Apicius with Marcus Gavius Apicius, a figure who lived during the time of Tiberius and became a symbol of gastronomic luxury and culinary refinement.
The text is traditionally attributed to him, but scholars believe that the version that has come down to us is the result of a long stratification and a late compilation.
Because it is one of the only two witnesses of the De re coquinaria before the 15th century and is therefore fundamental from both a historical and philological point of view.
The original is preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library with the shelfmark Urb. Lat. 1146.
The codex was copied in the 9th century in Tours, probably in the scriptorium of Saint Martin.
The purple pages, the gold writing, the palmette decorations, the arched indexes and the Carolingian minuscule make it a true masterpiece of the Carolingian book.
Includes the facsimile, the critical commentary, the expected luxury packaging, the certificates indicated in the description and access to reserved Antiquus contents.
The purchase includes a 60-month warranty and a 30-day right of withdrawal.
Yes. It’s perfect for those who love rare books, history, gastronomy, manuscript art, and objects with a strong visual impact. In short, it’s the ideal gift for those who already have everything except an illuminated imperial recipe book.
