Thomas J. Tobin
Dr. Harriet McNeal
High Renaissance Art
Art Project

“La Buona, Sana Cucina”

Cinquecento Florentine painting and sculpture focus primarily on the ordered harmony between the micro- and macrocosm. The proportions of the parts of the human body were seen as equivalent to the proportions of musical harmony, which were also the same relationships seen in the movements of the heavens and in the paintings produced by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. It is no surprise, then, that the Tuscans saw meals as yet another way to express the harmony of many parts working together. The main meal in Florence was dinner, and it consisted of six or seven courses, with no "main" dish. Each course was served separately; no two courses would be allowed on the table at once. Usually, a dinner would be served in this order: aperitif, antipasto, boiled meat, roasted meat, fruit, salad, and dessert (Bugialli 8). However, the order in which courses were served, and indeed the menu itself, varied with the season, the social status of the assembled company, and the individual taste of the host. The menu for the dinner at Harriet's house, for which we have extant recipes, is constituted like this:
Aperitif: cold white wine, mozzarella in carrozza (Bugialli 103) 
Antipasto: panzanella (Bugialli 113)
Vegetable: strozzapreti alla fiorentina (Gavin 152-3)
Boiled Meat: spezzato alla moda (Lo Pinto 124)
Roast Meat: carbonata fiorentina (delle Cinqueterre 13)
Fruit: melone ripieno (Lo Pinto 80-1)
Salad: insalata mista (Bugialli 500)
Dessert: pésche candita (Lo Pinto 80) 
Each of these recipes has been copied onto a  separate sheet, with appropriate changes made to suit both the conveniences of the modern kitchen and the student budget. Please sign up to take responsibility for one of the courses. If you wish to share the expense and work with a friend, all the better. None of these courses, I estimate, will cost more than ten dollars to feed twelve people--especially if one shops at the Farmer's Market to take advantage of their 10% student discount.
The food was not the only aspect of a Renaissance Tuscan meal expected to be smooth and harmonious; the guests themselves ought to behave politely. Though there were quite a few courtesy books, like Castiglione’s Il Cortegiano, which proscribed proper manners at table, they almost all agree that it is better to “err along with others than to be correct alone” (Rossetti 35). As early as around 1290, Fra Bonvicino--literally, “The Good Neighbor”--advised his readers about matters of importance at table. His advice takes the form of fifty verses, each explaining one of the tenets of good manners at table. Many we would follow today--such as not speaking with one’s mouth full--but there are some which are now archaic--spit discreetly; don’t put your knife back in its sheath until the host puts his away (Rossetti 33-4). These dicta helped to ensure that all would go smoothly at meal time, further emphasizing the sprezzatura of seemingly-effortless grace, the harmony, with which any social function was to occur. A few of Fra Bonvicino’s rules for the table may be appropriate to close with:

• To remember grace before meals.
• To eat enough, not too much.
• Not to get drunk in formal company, and only rarely among friends.
• To wash the hands before dining.
• Not to sit at an inappropriate place at table.
• Not to tilt forward on the table.
• Not to suck at solid food eaten with the spoon.
• To abstain from raising objections to the food.
• To abstain at dinner from stroking cats and dogs.
• To turn aside if one sneezes or coughs.
• Not to blow the nose through the fingers.
• Not to scratch at one’s head or private parts during dinner.
• Not to lick one’s fingers clean.
• Not to pick one’s teeth with the fingers.
• Not to speak to one who is drinking.
• To retain one’s spoon throughout the meal.
• Not to lean one’s arms on, or put one’s feet upon, the table.
• Not to gesture wildly while speaking.
• Not to bolt one’s food down quickly.
				(Rossetti, 37-40)
So now that we know what to eat and how to eat it, let's enjoy it at Harriet's house on Sunday, December 3rd at 3 pm.

Works Cited

Anderson, John L. A Fifteenth Century Cokry Boke. New York: Scribner’s, 1962.

Bugialli, Giuliano. The Fine Art of Italian Cooking--Expanded and Updated. New York: Random, 1989.

delle Cinqueterre, Berengario. The Renaissance Cookbook: Historical Perspectives Through Cookery. Crown Point, IA: Dunes P, 1975.

Gavin, Paola. Italian Vegetarian Cooking. New York: Evans, 1990.

Hazan, Marcella. The Classic Italian Cookbook. New York: Knopf, 1983.

Lo Pinto, Maria. The Art of Regional Italian Cooking. New York: Doubleday, 1963.

Rossetti, William Michael. “Italian Courtesy Books. Fra Bonvicino da Riva’s Fifty Courtesies for the Table (Italian and English), with other Translations and Elucidations.” Early English Text Society 8.2 (1869). 7-74.

Scappi, Bartolomeo. Libri della cucina sei. Venice, 1570. Rpt. as The Renaissance Cookery Book. Trans. G. Polliano. London: Methuen, 1935.