Anthony Lentin, M. M. Shcherbatov's Sweet Tooth: Attribution of the Source of an Unpublished Manuscript
The Shcherbatov papers in the Hermitage Collection of manuscripts at the St Petersburg Public Library include an extensive manuscript in Shcherbatov's hand on the subject of confectionery. It consists of 442 pages bound in quarto in a paper board binding, paginated by Shcherbatov, and entitled 'Nauka dvoretskogo konfeturshika' (sic). The work comprises a detailed descriptive guide to desserts and their preparation, divided into 695 sub-headings, ranging from numerous varieties of fruit preserves and compotes to caramel, ice-cream, tea, coffee and chocolate.(1)
D. N. Al'shits and E. G. Shapot, authors of the catalogue to the Hermitage Collection compiled in 1960, surmise that the work is a translation from an unknown French original.(2) Professor Joan Afferika, in her meticulous scrutiny of the Shcherbatov papers in the Hermitage Collection, published in 1978, agrees that it is a translation.(3) No attempt is made, however, either by Al'shits and Shapot or by Afferika to identify the original.
Yet the problem of attribution is easily solved. Consideration of the title of Shcherbatov's manuscript and consultation of the British Library catalogue suggested a possible French original. A comparison of this volume with a transcript of excerpts from Shcherbatov's manuscript proves conclusively that the latter is a translation from the classic eighteenth-century French cookery book, La Science du Maître d'Hôtel, Confiseur, à l'usage des officiers, avec des observations sur la connaissance et les propriétés des fruits. The author, who styled himself Menon and flourished in the mid- eighteenth century, is described in the Biographie universelle as "ce savant gastronome".(4) "Ses écrits," we are informed, "sont, sans contredit, ceux que l'on consulte le plus souvent".(5)
The Nouvelle biographie générale describes Menon's cookery books as "nombreux, recherches et frequemment reimprimes".(6) They included Nouveau traite de la cuisine (1739), Les Soupers de la cour (1755) and La cuisinière bourgeoise, first published in 1746, of which the same authority informs us: "il est peu de livres qui, depuis lew apparition, aient donné lieu à un plus grand nombre de contrefaçons, de traductions ou d'éditions que ce manuel de l'art culinaire".(7)
La Science du maître d'hotel, confiseur was published at Paris in 1750, and was republished in 1768, 1777 and 1788. It was a continuation of La Science du maitre d'hôtel, cuisinier, avec des observations sur la connaissance et les propriétés des aliments, first published in 1749. Excerpts in Russian from La Science du maître d'hôtel, confiseur appeared in a cookery book compiled by Nikolai Iatsenkov, Noveishaia i polnaia povarennaia kniga (Moscow, 1790-91).(8) Shcherbatov's manuscript, though undated, almost certainly predates Iatsenkov's published version, since Shcherbatov died in 1790. It constitutes, so far as is known, the only complete translation of the work into Russian.(9)
- A. Lentin (Open University)
References
(1) Ermitazhnoe Sobranie No. 162. This manuscript is not listed by N. D. Chechulin, who produced the first scholarly inventory of Shcherbatov's manuscripts in 1900 ('Khronologiia i spisok sochinenii kn. Shcherbatova', Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniia, (August 1900), pp. 115-66); but it is included in D. N. Al'shits and E. G. Shapot, Katalog russkikh rukopisei ermitazhnogo sobraniia (Leningrad, 1960), where it is identified as being in Shcherbatov's hand. Joan Afferika demonstrates that it is undoubtedly the work of Shcherbatov, being in his hand and matching in size and description the corresponding entry in the 'Reestr Biblioteki pokoinogo Kniazia M. M. Shcherbatova', an inventory compiled in 1791 immediately after his death. ('Considerations on the formation of the Hermitage Collection of Russian Manuscripts', Forschungen zur osteuropaischen Geschichte (1978), p. 290. Cf. her 'The Political and Social Thought of Prince M. M. Shcherbatov (1733-1790)' (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University, 1966), pp. 225, 380).(2) D.N. Al'shits and E.G. Shapot, op.cit.
(3) Afferika, 'Considerations', loc.cit.
(4) Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne, (ed.) Michaud, xxvii (Paris and Leipzig, n.d.), 652.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Nouvelle biographie generale, (ed.) Hoefer, xxxiii (Paris, 1860), 997-8.
(7) Op.cit.. p. 998.
(8) Svodnyi katalog russkoi knigi grazhdanskoi pechati XVIII veka 1725-1800, III (Moscow, 1966), 462.
(9) Shcherbatov's interest in culinary matters will be familiar to readers of On the Corruption of Morals in Russia. His correspondence demonstrates that he ordered regular consignments of food and wine from the west (Pamiatniki moskovskoi delovoi pis'mennosti XVIII veka, (ed.) S. I. Kotkov (Moscow, 1981), pp. 61-91). For a personal attempt at cooking by Shcherbatov, cf. Un diplomate francais a la cour de Catherine II 1775-1780. Journal intime du Chevalier de Corberon, charge d'affaires de France en Russie, (ed.) Labande (Paris, 1901), 305-6).