SC - Re: Sommate di Napoli (again)

[Thomas Gloning]

Hello again,

Edward Goldberg, Director, THE MEDICI ARCHIVE PROJECT wrote:
<<< I would be especially interested to know what kind of meat they were
made from. One of our researchers proposes that it was perhaps donkey
meat since "carne di somaro" often found its way into "salumeria"--even
Bolognese "mortadella. >>>

As far as I can see, there are two possibilities to explain "sommata".

The first version:
Faccioli said that the sinnata (in his manuscript) was 'mammella di
scrofa' without further notice. Bertoluzza adds that the word is
"derivante molto probabilmente da zinna, ossia dalle mammelle del
maiale" (59). He says that the Florentine poet Anton Francesco Grazzini
mentioned this dish as a sort of salted dish (una vivanda salata). Paolo
Micoli, in his reedition of the Faccioli-text mentions that the word may
have some connection with latin _sumen_ (also meaning 'mammelle di
scrofa'). Sumen is mentioned in the Editto di Diocleziano, in Martial
and four times in Apicius (4.2.14; 4.2.15; 7.2.1; 7.2.2). -- Thus,
sommata would be a salted dish basically made from the udder of a pig.

The second version:
My old Bulle-Rigutini dictionary states that "sommata" means (in German)
'pikantes Gericht, aus allen moeglichen Bestandteilen, das zum Trinken
anreizt' (roughly: a spicy dish made from several and different
ingredients that makes people drink). Perhaps the basis for this meaning
is _sommare_ 'to put (several different) things together'?

I am far away from the huge historical dictionaries of Italian at
present. What do they say?

I will transcribe the recipe from the Bertoluzza-editon later on (end of
the week).

Cheers again,
Thomas

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