Let's get all historical up in this post

Let's just call this the first in a series of ruminations on the past, present, and future of food. In no particular order, this one falls around the mid-1800's.

According to Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, as translated by M.F.K. Fisher*:

Definition of Gastronomy

Gastronomy is the intelligent knowledge of whatever concerns man's nourishment.

Its purpose is to watch over his conservation by suggesting the best possible sustenance for him.

It arrives at this goal by directing, according to certain principles, all men who hunt, supply or prepare whatever can be made into food.

Thus it is Gastronomy, to tell the truth, which motivates the farmers, vineyardists, fishermen, hunters, and the great family of cooks, no matter under what names or qualifications they may disguise their part in the preparation of foods.

Gastronomy is a part of:
Natural history, by its classification of alimentary substances;
Physics, because of the examination of the composition and quality of these substances;
Chemistry, by the various analyses and catalyses to which it subjects them;
Cookery, because of the art of adapting dishes and making them pleasant to the taste;
Business, by the seeking out of methods of buying as cheaply as possible what is needed, and of selling most advantageously what can be produced for sale;
Finally, political economy, because of the sources of revenue which gastronomy creates and the means of exchange which it establishes between nations.

It rules over our whole life; for the cries often newborn babe beg for his wet nurse's breast; and the dying man still receives with some pleasure his final potion, which, alas, it is too late for him ever to digest!

It concerns also every state of society, for just as it directs the banquets of assembled kings, it dictates the number of minutes needed to make a perfectly boiled egg.

The subject matter of gastronomy is whatever can be eaten; its direct end is the conservation of individuals; and its means of execution are the culture which produces, the commerce which exchanges, the industry which prepares, and the experience which invents means to dispose of everything to the best advantage.

*Brilliat-Savarin's The Physiology of Taste was published in 1825. It has been translated from French into English several times, including once by the food writer MFK Fisher, who published a translation in 1945. I'm currently reading this translation, and, in being lazy, spent a portion of the evening trying to search for a public-domain version from which to copy and paste this quote. However, it looks like most public-domain versions out there are of a different translation, the Fayette Robinsion translation (done around the mid 1800's I believe--he died in 1859). I've never paid attention to different translations of foreign texts before, but even a quick skim through shows the difference the translator's perspective can have. Robinson's alternative translation of the above passage can be found here (scroll to the third essay down)--I wonder if I'm the only one to realize the amazing richness a food writer brought to the enjoyment of this text. (If you agree, and intend to ever read a copy of this tome, be sure to get your hands on a version of the MFK Fisher translation...it's well worth the hunt).