SC - ancient pasta

[Thomas Gloning]

Thanks, Hauviette, for pointing to the paper of Stefano Milioni.

<< is the author of a paper on Pasta in existence in ancient 
Rome. Visit the link available through this Roman food page at:
http://www.ancientsites.com/~Caius_Livius/ >>

I read the text with great interest. On the other hand I found several
claims poorly documented or even doubtful. Let me mention two.

E.g., he quotes the Marco Polo-text: "(he saw and tested) lasagne
similar to those that we prepare with wheat flour", indicating that
lasagne were already in use in Italy when he saw them in China. Now, if
I am not mistaken, the original text of Marco Polo's travelogue is
written in French, and I would like to know the word translated here as
"lasagne".

Then: one of his main claims, that ancient "lagana" are the same as
later italian "lasagne", seems to be doubtful. According to the Latin
dictionary of Georges, "laganum" has two uses: 1) 'dünner Ölkuchen,
Ölplatz, in Öl gebackene Plinse, als leichte Speise für Kranke (Celsus);
als Speise für Ärmere (Horaz). 2) 'das Blatt, die Lage eines aus
mehreren Schichten (Lagen) bestehenden Kuchens (Apicius). (roughly:
'thin cake, baked in oil' (Celsus, Horaz), 'sheet of dough' (Apicius)).
André, in his edition of Apicius, says _laganum_ 'feuille de pâte'
('sheet of dough'). The etymological dictionary of Italian of
Cortelazzo/ Zolli does not mention a connection between lat. _laganum_
and it. _lasagne_. 

Then, there is the use of pictorial representations: he says that the
tools necessary to prepare pasta are to be seen in some 4th-century-B.C.
tomb; after the experience with the "Spaetzle-tool" in a medieval
"Sachsenspiegel", I think one has to be very careful to draw inferences
from what one sees to the function of tools. After all, the tomb is a
RICH man's tomb, and pasta are said to be food of the poor.

Now, I am not saying that there were not ancient pasta. I just don't
know about that. Did anybody look at André, L´alimentation et la cuisine
à Rome yet?

All I am saying is that the points made in the paper of Stefano Milioni
paper ('The history of pasta in Italy') deserve caution and further
checking.

Cheers,
Thomas

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