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Of course, Mickiewicz reversed the sequence of events in his poem; if Czerniecki described the Roman banquet as a historical fact in his cookbook, then the same banquet couldn't have been prepared according to the instructions from the same cookbook.
Anyway, it looks like the poet confused two different cookery books (which wereare, as it happens, the only two surviving Polish-language cookbooks printed before the end of the 18th century) – Czerniecki's ''Compendium Ferculorum'', published in 1682, and Wielądko's ''The Perfect Cook'', published a hundred years later. How did this come to pass? Was it a mistake or poetic license? Maybe ''The Perfect Cook'' simply ringed better in the poet's ear than the bland ''A Collection of Dishes'', so Mickiewicz switched the titles on purpose? But if so, then he could have at least explained this manipulation in a footnote. If he hadn't, then perhaps it was because he was genuinely mistaken himself. This conjecture is confirmed by a letter written by Edward Odyniec, who travelled together with Adam Mickiewicz in Italy, where he mentions a worn copy of a piece of culinary literature that the poet always carried in his luggage.
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