SC - On the trail of...

[allilyn at juno.com]

Nanna says
>>Macaroon recipes have appeared in cookbooks since at least the late
17th
century but they are thought to have originated in Venice in the 14th or
15th centuries.<<

Which made me think:  Epulario backs up to Platina who backs up to
Martino who backs up to  my new Neapolitan Collections, which backs up to
the Catalan mss, especially the BC 2112.  The Neapolitan will probably be
found to go forward to the d'Estes in Ferraro, since Duchess Leonora was
the King of Naples' daughter.  Don't know if we have any specifically
located collections from Florence, Milan or Venice.  Does anyone else? 
How much does Martino appear to be a compilation of the northern Italian
and the Catalan to those of you who study Martino?  One of Milham's
articles refers to him designating certain recipes as from certain
cities.    Scully seems to think a lot of Martino is the result of the
Catalan via Naples.  

Rome gets the Catalan imports when the Borgias become prominent in the
Catholic Chirch hierarchy, and must have had Martino influence before
that.    

We know Chiquart's Prince Bishop became Pope rather farther back.  Do we
have anything which shows the influence of Chiquart from the Savoy on
northern Italy?  Given the prominence of Venice as a wealthy and
influential trading city, the sometimes unique character of Venetian
costume, and the difference in social customs from many of the other
city-states, I'd expect that Venetian food had a special character of its
own, and there ought to be recipe collections specific to it.
(Come to think of it, that trading may have brought in a good bit of the
Arabic traditions.  That makes more sense to me as a practical reality
than scribbled recipes stuffed in Crusader back-packs.)

The nobles traveled and took their cooks, who talked to each other. 
There is more commonality than not in the upper reaches of nobility,
across provincial/national lines.  I'm getting more and more interested
in tracing influences of specific works, not just redacting so-and-so's
whatever.  The more I understand about the food and cuisine, the better
redactor I become, IMO.

Anybody want to comment on the trail of....?

Regards,
Allison,     allilyn at juno.com


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