Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome

glutton MAPPA, table napkin (Fr. nappe). M. is a Punic word, according to Quintil. 1, 5, 57 Each banquet guest brought with him from his own home such a napkin or cloth which he used during the banquet to wipe his mouth and hands. The ancients, evidently, were conscious of the danger of infection through the common use of napkins and table ware. Sometimes they used their napkins to wrap up part of the meal and to give it to their slaves to carry home in. Horace, Martial, Petronius attest to this fact. The banquet guests also employed their own slaves to wait on them at their Host's party. This custom and the individual napkin habit have survived until after the French revolution. Grimod de la Reynière, in his Almanach des Gourmands, Paris, 1803, seq., describes how guests furnished their own napkins and servants for their own use at parties to which they were invited This rather sensible custom relieved the host of much responsibility and greatly assisted him in defraying the expenses of the dinner. On the other hand it reveals the restrictions placed upon any host by the general shortage of table ware, table linen, laundering facilities in the days prior to the mechanical age Marcellus, a Roman physician, {Rx} 29 Marinade, pickle; a composition of spices, vegetables, herbs, and liquids, such as vinegar, wine, to preserve meats for several days and to impart to it a special flavor, {Rx} 11, 236, 244, 394; cf. EMBAMMA MARJORANA, marjoram Marmites, illustrated, pp. 264, 284, 312, 342 MARRUBIUM, the plant horehound Martial, writer, p. 10, {Rx} 307, 461 (on bulbs) Martino, Maestro, p. 3, cf. Vehling: Martino and Platina, Exponents of Renaissance Cookery, Hotel Bulletin and The Nation's Chefs, Chicago, October, 1932, and Platina, Maestro nell'arte culinaria Un'interessante studio di Joseph D. Vehling, Cremona, 1935 Mason, Mrs., a writer, {Rx} 126 MASTIX, MASTICE, MASTICHE, the sweet-scented gum of the mastiche-tree; hence MASTICATUS, MASTICINUS for foods treated with M. Matius, a writer, was a friend of Julius Caesar. His work is lost, {Rx} 167; apples named after him, _ibid._ MAYONNAISE DE