pistor
pistor, a miller, bread-maker, baker
- I Lit.: nec pistorem ullum nossent, nisi eum, qui in pistrino pinseret farinam (far?),Varr. ap. Non. 152, 14; cf. id. ib. 16: pistores tantum eos qui far pinserunt nominatos, At. Cap. ap. Plin. 18, 11, 28, § 107; Plaut. Capt. 4, 2, 27 (807); id. Trin. 2, 4, 6 (407); Gell. 3, 3, 14.—
- II Transf., a baker (class.): pistores Romae non fuere ad Persicum usque bellum ... ipsi panem faciebant Quirites, mulierum id opus erat, Plin. 18, 11, 28, § 107: ut tuus pistor bonum faceret panem, etc., Varr. ap. Gell. 15, 19, 2; Suet. Caes. 48: mitto hasce artes vulgares, coquos, pistores, lecticarios, Cic. Rosc. Am. 46, 134; id. Fin. 2, 8, 23; id. Arch. 46, 134; Sen. Ep. 15, 3, 24; Vulg. Gen. 40, 1. At Rome the bakers formed a separate guild, Inscr. Don. cl. 9, n. 11; Inscr. Grut. 81, 10; 255, 1; Dig. 3, 4, 1; 27, 1, 46.—
- B A surname of Jupiter, because, when the Romans were besieged in the Capitol, he gave them the idea of hurling bread, as though they had an abundance of it, at the besieging Gauls, Ov. F. 6, 350; 394; Lact. 1, 20.—
- C Pastry-cooks were also called pistores, Mart. 11, 31, 8; 14, 222; Petr. 60.
tempore non pauco ~oris officium tenens, inter cribrandum, clibanumque accendendum ‥ et panes in eo coquendos, presbiteratus caeremonias ‥ discere simul ‥ non omisit
quid dicis tu, ~or [AS: ]?bæcere
inter ~ores, cervisiarios, sartores, lavatores, sutores
sciant ‥ me concesisse ‥ Ailifo ~ori meo ‥ terram ‥ in Inverleth
farinam aqua conspersam pinsit ~or et malaxat, demum pasta ministerio pale in clibanum mittitur
hic ~or,pestur
si ~or convictus fuerit in ponderacione panis ‥ patiatur judicium corporis sui sub pilloria
Matheus Spark, ~or, per annum xx s.
Pharao cruce ~oris natale suum dehonestat
Simon Puddynglane, ~or turtarius
Ricardus atte Vanne, turtus ~or
ad domum Simonis Frensshe, albi ~oris
Erchenger ~or
Ricardus ~or et Stephanus Prepositus ‥ capti pro morte Nicholai ‥ domini sui
xij jurat’ curie, viz. ‥ Radulfus ~or, Walterus Douce, Radulfus ~or junior
terram quam Henricus ~or tenuit
heredes Hugonis ~oris, Nicholai ~oris ‥ et Ricardi Fayrchild
- 1. (pre- en postklass.) molenaar;
- 2. bakker;
- 3. Pistor als bijnaam v. Jupiter.
- PIS-, a miller, bread-maker, baker.
PISTOR(ἀπτοποιός), a baker. Both with the Greeks and Romans the bread was originally prepared and baked at home. In large households this practice was long continued. In the Hellenistic period and under the Roman Empire there were numerous slaves skilled as bakers and confectioners (cf. Athen. 3.112 c); and several of the private houses at Pompeii have baking-rooms on the premises (see Overbeck-Mau, Pompeii, 4th ed., pp. 301, 385, Casa di Sallustio; pp. 328 f., 386, Casa di Paus.; p. 343, Casa del Laberinto) There is no mention of the baker's trade in Homer. The flour mentioned in the Homeric poems is of two kinds: coarse barley-flour (ἄλφιτα) and wheat-flour (ἀλείατα = ἄλευρα). It was from the latter that bread was generally made (see Buchholz, Die hom. Realien, ii. pt. 1, p. 108 f.; ii. pt. 2, p. 168 f.; cp. Riedenauer, Handwerk in den horn. Zeiten, § 5). Schliemann (Troja, p. 44; Ilios, pp. 234, 235) appears to assert that grain could not have been made into bread into Homeric times, but it is difficult to see the grounds for such a view. The Homeric words for bread are σῖτος, ἄρτος, and πύρνον (specially wheaten-bread). Ἄρτος seems to signify the baked loaves; σῖτος is a more general term, used e. g. for food in opposition to drink.
At Athens as early as the 5th century B.C. we find working-bakers (ἀρτοκόποι) who sold their wares in the market and streets through female vendors (ἀρτοπώλιδες), who enjoyed a reputation for abusive language (Aristoph. Ran. 858; Vesp. 1389, &c.). At Rome (according to Pliny, Plin. Nat.18.107) there was no baker's trade till about B.C. 172. Many freedmen are found engaged in the trade, and under the Republic it was one of the duties of the aediles to see that the bread was properly prepared and correct in weight. A bakers' guild (corpus or collegium pistorum), which long existed, was organised by Trajan, and this body, through its connexion with the cura annonae, became of much importance and enjoyed various privileges. There were guilds of pistores and clibanarii at Pompeii (Overbeck-Mau, Pompeii, 4th ed., p. 470). A great increase in the number of bakeries (pistrinae, officinae pistoriae) afterwards took place at Rome, owing probably to the action of Aurelian in introducing a daily distribution of bread instead of the old monthly distribution of grain that had been usual since the time of the Gracchi. This daily distribution also took place at Constantinople. The businesses of the miller and baker were usually combined: cf. Serv. ad Aen. 1.179 (pistores, pinsores, from pinsere, to pound the grain); and authorities in Blümner, Technol. 1. p. 16, note.
Confectioners and makers of the finer kinds of bread-stuff are distinguished by various names, as πλακουντοποιός, πεμματουργός, ποπανοποιός, pistores candidarii (Orelli, 4263), siliqutiarii (C. I. L. 6.22), clibanarii (C. I. L. 4.677), (pistor) Persianus (Orelli, 4264; cf. Plin. Nat.18.105), dulciarii (Mart. 14.222, &c.), libcarii, crustularii (Senec. Ep. 56, 2), fictores (makers of sacrificial cakes), &c. The cakes and confectionery of the pastrycooks had already a literature of their own in antiquity, and are described in Athenaeus (Athen. 14.643 e, f, and Pollux, 6.75 if. Some were made specially for religious festivals and sacrifices (see Lobeck, De Graecorum placentis sacris).
A Pompeian painting (Jahn, Abh. der Sächs. Ges. der Wissensch. v. pl. 3 = Baumeister, Denkhmäler,Bäckerei, fig. 225) shows us a baker's shop-table or counter, and shelves behind piled with loaves of circular form. The shopman sits raised up behind the counter, giving a loaf to a customer. A baker's shop at Pompeii has as its sign a relief of a mill turned by a mule (Overbeck-Mau, op. cit., p. 379, fig. 186). The plan of a bakery at Pompeii is given in Overbeck-Mau, op. cit., p. 386, fig. 189 (cf. also the view, ib. p. 385, fig. 188). The working-rooms are there situated in the back part of a tolerably large building. Four large mills have been found there, and on the right is the oven, connected with two rooms, in one of which the kneading of the dough probably took place. Other rooms in the house are shops, sleeping-apartments, &c.
Wheat was the grain chiefly used for bread by the Greeks and Romans. Barley was also used, but at Rome barley-bread (pants hordeaceus) was the food only of slaves, soldiers, and barbarians (cf. Plin. Nat.18.74). Spelt (ζειά, far) was also sometimes used for bread, especially by the Romans at an early period A coarse bread was made from alica, a kind of spelt (corresponding to the Greek χόνδρος), which was grown in Verona, Campania, and many parts of Italy (cf. Plin. Nat.18.106). Rye (secale) was considered unwholesome by the Romans.
As with us, several kinds of flour were produced from the same grain, differing according to the action of the mill and the use of sieves (κύσκινα, κρησέραι, ξριβρα of greater or less fineness. Bread made of pure and finely sifted wheat-flour was, called by the Greeks ἀλευρίτης, γυρίτης, κρησερίτης, &c., and was described as white bread (λευκός, καθαρός). By the Romans the bread made of pure wheat-flour (simila, similago) was called panis siligineus. If the bran was mixed with the wheat-flour, the bread was called by the Greeks συγκομιστός, αὐτόπυρος, πύρνον (or πιτυρίας = bread of bran only), and was spoken of as ἀκάθαρτος, ῥυπαρός &c. By the Romans, bread made of coarse flour or of flour with the bran was called panis cibarius, plebeius, castrensis, sordidus, rusticus, secundus, furfureus, &c.
The dough was prepared by moistening the flour with water (Senec. Ep. 90, &c.), by adding salt, and by careful kneading (μάττω, φυράω, subigo, depso) in a kneading-trough (μάκτρα, μαγίς σκάφη, κάρδοπος, alveus), which was generally made of wood, but sometimes of stone or pottery (Phot. p. 243, 17, s. v. μακτρα). The kneading seems usually to have been done with the hand, though from some monumental representations (see Blümner, Technol. 1. p. 63) it would appear that a simple machine worked by men or by an animal was sometimes used for the work.
Both fermented and unfermented bread were known to the ancients, but the fermented was the kind usually made. The leaven (ζύμη, ζύμωμα, fermentum) for mixing with the dough was produced in several ways (see Plin. Nat.18.102, &c.). If required in small quantities for immediate use, it was prepared from cakes of barley and water which were roasted on the hearth, and then put in covered vessels till the fermentation took place; or, the baked dough from the previous day's baking was taken and kneaded with salt, and a decoction made from it, which was allowed to stand till it became fermented, Leaven in large quantities, which could be kept for a year, was made during the vintage time by kneading millet with must, or by kneading wheat-bran with must and drying it in the sun. The dough when prepared was placed on a board and shaped, generally with the hand, but sometimes in moulds (artoptae). It was then by means of a shovel (pala) placed in the oven (ἰπνός, furnus: for the shape cf. an oven at Pompeii, Overbeck-Maun, 4th ed., fig. 192; Blümner, Technol. 1.65, 66). The dough was occasionally baked on the hearth among the embers, or on a spit; or it was sometimes placed in a vessel (κλίβανος or κρίβανος), usually of pottery, provided with a cover and pierced with small holes. Hot embers were then heaped up round it till the heat penetrated.
The loaves of the Greeks and Romans were usually flat, circular, and indented into four or more parts (ἄτρος βλωμιαῖος, τετράτρνφος,
panis qsuadratus). Loaves were also made in other forms, such as cubes (κύβοι). The shape of the Roman loaf is well known to us from the Pompeian paintings, and from actual specimens discovered at Pompeii (Baumeister, Denkmäler,Bäckerei, fig. 225; Overbeck-Mau, op. cit., p. 385).
A representation of the bread-making processes is to be found on the relief of the tombstone of Eurysaces, a large baker at Rome of the Augustan period or earlier (Monum. d. Inst. 2.58; 0. Jahn, Annali, 10. p. 231 if.; C. I. L. i. n. 1013-1017). Here is shown the grinding of the corn, the sifting of the flour, the kneading and shaping of the dough, the depositing of the dough in the oven, and finally the bringing out of the loaves in baskets to be weighed.
(Authorities.--Full references to the ancient authorities are given in an excellent chapter of Blümner's Technologie, 1.1 if.; see also Mommsen-Marquardt, Handbuch der röm. Alt. 7. p. 398 ff, and Blümner, art. Bäckerei in Baumeister's Denkmäler.)
[W--K W--H.]The Roman word for a baker, the Greek terms being ἀρτοποιός, “bread-maker,” and ἀρτοπώλης, “bread-seller.” The Latin term is from pinso, and means literally “pounder.” Bakers are first mentioned in Greece in the fifth century B.C., but do not appear in Rome before the early part of the second century. They were usually freedmen or citizens of the lower class; but, owing to the importance attached by the State to the trade, it became one of some standing. There was a collegium or guild of bakers under Augustus, which served the State, and underTrajan it was formally organized with 100 members and special privileges. It was under the supervision of the praefectus annonae. (See annona.) Bread was distributed at Rome at the public expense, at first monthly, but in the third century daily; and at the beginning of the fourth century there were 254 public bakeries in the city. These made only the coarser kinds of bread, the finer sorts being produced at the private establishments.
Baking was sometimes done in furnaces, as in the bake-shop (pistrina) excavated at Pompeii; or in the clibanus, a clay vessel, in which the dough was placed and then buried in hot ashes (Petron. 35; see clibanus). Wheat-bread (panis siligineus) was the most common variety, as the ancients thoughtrye (secale) unfit to eat; and the quality of the flour determined the quality of the bread. Barley-bread (panis hordeaceus) was regarded as fit only for soldiers and slaves (Pliny , Pliny H. N. xviii. 74). Spelt (ζειά, far) was sometimes used for making a coarse bread.
The dough for bread was prepared by moistening the flour with water, by adding salt, and then by kneading (μάττειν, subigere, depsere) in a trough of wood or pottery. In large bakeries it appears to have been done by a sort of machine, the motive-power of which was supplied by an animal.
The leaven (ζύμη, fermentum) was prepared from cakes of barley and water, or from the surplus dough of the preceding day's batch, which was kneaded with salt, put into water, and kept till it fermented. The dough was shaped either by hand or in moulds (artoptae), and then placed in the oven (ἰπνός, furnus) on a shovel (pala); but was sometimes baked on the hearth in the embers.
Cake and fancy-bread were made in various forms by special confectioners (πλακουντοποιοί, πεμματουργοί, clibanarii, dulciarii, crustularii, etc.), and were much used for sacrificial purposes. On these sweet preparations, see Athen. xiv. 643 e and f, and Pollux, vi. 75 foll. The sweetening was done with honey. See Blümner, Technologie, i. 1 foll.; and id. s. v. “Bäckerei” in Baumeister's Denkmäler.