BREAD, a nutritive substance, made of corn or other farinaceous vegetables, ground into flour or meal, and kneaded with water, generally with the addition of leaven or yeast.
However indispensible bread may now appear as an article of food, the art of baking was by no means an early discovery ; and even at present there arc some savage nations to whom it is altogether unknown. The fertility ascribed by the poets to the golden age, when the earth spontaneously offered corn and every thing i necessary to the subsistence and comfort of man, is only so far fabulous, as they assign to one spot, or to every portion of the globe, the blessings which were scat tered up and down through various and remote parts of its whole extent. It is perfectly evident, that no cul tivation could create a single grain ; and of course, that every species of corn must have originally been the spontaneous production of some region of the earth. Yet as these corns, previous to cultivation, would grow in small quantities, their importance as articles of food, might long escape observation ; and mankind would in the mean time subsist on the more obvious and plentiful, though less nutritious vegetables, which were within their reach. According to the prevailing traditions of almost every country, acorns and berries appear to have constituted the chief vegetable food of the primxval race of men. This state of simplicity and ignorance con tinued for several ages, till, according to the obscure intimations of the Grecian fabulists, Ceres descended from heaven, to direct mankind to the use of corn, and to teach them the art of agriculture. Pliny informs us, (Nat. Hist. 1. xviii. c. 7.) that barley was the only spe cies of corn at first used for food ; and even after the method of red ucing it to flour had been discovered, it was long before men attained the art of baking it into bread.
At first, they seem to have contented themselves with boiling their flour or meal into a kind of porridge or pudding ; and when at length they became acquainted with the method of kneading it into dough, their bread was nothing more than a kind of tough unleavened cake. The baking of these cakes, instead of being left to any particular set of men, as a distinct profession, was one of the principal concerns of the matrons. In those rude ages, when the prince himself slaughtered the lamb, which was to supply his table, the most dignified ladies did not disdain to employ their fair hands in kneading the dough. In this first stage of the art of baking, the use of ovens was unknown ; and the cake, when properly kneaded, was toasted either on a warm hearth, or on a gridiron.
Ovens were first invented in the East. Their con ,truction was understood by the Jews, the Greeks, and the Asiatics, among whom baking was practised as a distinct profession. In this art, the Cappadocians,
Lydians, and Phoenicians, are said to have particularly excelled. It was not till about 680 years after the Inundation of Rome, that these artisans passed into Europe. The Roman armies, on their return from Macedonia, brought Grecian bakers with them into Italy. As these bakers had handmills beside their ovens, they still continued to be called pistores, from the ancient practice of bruising the corn in a mortar ; and their bakehouses were denominated pistorix. In the time of Augustus there were no fewer than 329 public bakehouses in Rome ; almost the whole of which were occupied by Greeks, who long continued the only per sons in that city acquainted with the art of baking good bread.
In nothing, perhaps, is the wise and cautious policy of the Roman government more remarkably displayed, than in the regulations which it imposed on the bakers within the city. We have already observed, (see BAK ING,) that to the foreign bakers, who came to Rome with the army from Macedonia, a number of freedmen were associated, forming together an incorporation, from which neither they nor their children could separate, and of which even those who married the daughters of bakers were obliged to become members. To this incorpora tion were given all the mills, utensils, slaves, animals, every thing, in short, which belonged to the former bakehouses. In addition to these, they received con siderable portions of land ; and nothing was withheld, which could assist them in pursuing, to the best advan tage, their labours and their trade. The practice of condemning criminals and slaves, for petty offences, to work in the bakehouse, was still continued ; and even the judges of Africa were bound to send thither every five years, such persons as had incurred that kind of chas tisement. The bakehouses were distributed throughout the fourteen divisions of the city, and no baker could pass from one into another without special permission. The public granaries were committed to their care ; they paid nothing for the corn employed in baking bread, that was to be given in largess to the citizens ; and the price of the rest was regulated by the magistrates. No corn was given out of these granaries except for the bakehouses, and for the private use of the prince. The bakers had besides private granaries, in which they de posited the grain, which they had taken from the public granaries for immediate use ; and if any of them hap pened to be convicted of having diverted any portion of the grain to another use, he was condemned to a fine of five hundred pounds weight of gold.