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Fish and Cancer in Early Modern Paduan Consilia a Galenic Question in the History of Dietetics

Daniel Droixhe*

In the Therapeutics, to Glaucon, Galen devotes a chapter to ‘The causes and treatment of cancer and elephantiasis’. As for diet, he writes: ‘Give rockfish, give all types of birds, except those living in marshes.’ This article deals with the dietary recommendations concerning ‘rockfish’ in the consilia relating to ‘cancer’ and which were published in Padua in early modern times. The Paduan authors are correlated with their different generations in accordance with the periodization of Renaissance dietetics. The term ‘cancer’ and the localization of the organs which are affected (breast, uterus, liver, nostril, lip) are explained and situated with reference to the patho-physiological knowledge of the time. Galen’s statement about ‘rockfish’ is specified in his On the Powers of Foods, and the exclusion of other fish is justified by their ‘viscous’ nature. Special attention is given to the eel, as the latter is described in the Tractatus de piscibus of the Hortus sanitatis (end of the fifteenth century). The second part of the article is devoted to this question: was the Paduan dietary regime for the treatment of cancer similar to that prescribed for other diseases? Among the latter are mentioned: arthritis, disturbances linked with the reproductive organs or with sexual activity, ‘stones in the kidneys and in the gall-bladder’, ‘headache with tinnitus’, etc. If some fish, which are too ‘viscous’, have to be avoided, pike, sea bream, red mullet are considered to be healthy food.