Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (11 page)

53
See p. 164 below.

54
Artusian “Florencentricy” is epitomized in the literary writings the author dabbled in prior to his gastronomical conversion. Two of them –
Vita di Ugo Foscolo
(Life of Ugo Foscolo, 1878)
Osservazioni in appendice a trenta lettere di Giuseppe Giusti
(Marginal remarks on 30 letters by Giuseppe Giusti, 1881) – met with no success whatsoever but are occasionally mentioned by his biographers.

55
See p. “5 below.

56
See p. 493 below.

57
In English, a language whose gastronomic lexicon is greatly indebted to French, Artusi’s titanic efforts to re-Italianize culinary jargon will necessarily go undetected.

58
Carlo Collodi (Carlo Lorenzini’s
nom de plume)
lived from 1826 to 1890. At the end of the book, Pinocchio turns into a “normal boy” of flesh and bone. During his puppet years, he had many opportunities to be embarrassed by his nose that grew larger and longer whenever he told a lie. The story inspired many filmmakers, among them Walt Disney, whose animation ‘Americanized’ Pinocchio beyond recognition. A.M. Murray first translated the story into English in 1892.

59
Pinocchio
(London: Puffin Books, 1996), 33.

60
Ibid., 66–7.

61
See “C’est li fabliaus de coquaigne,” in Etienne Barbazan, ed.,
Fabliaux et Contes des Poètes François tirésa des meilleurs auteurs
, vol. 4 (Paris: Chez B. Warée oncle, 1808), 176. “Those who sleep longer hours / Make more money” and “Those who sleep until noon / Earn five farthings and a half.”

62
Giovanni Boccaccio,
Decameron
, trans. G.H. McWilliam (London: Penguin Books, 1972). See VIII Day, 3rd story, pp. 560–75. It has been more than plausibly shown that Boccaccio’s
maccaroni
are, in reality,
gnocchi
(made with cheese and flour).

63
See in particular his “Bilora”
(Teatro
, ed. Ludovico Zorzi [Turin: Einaudi, 1967]), a “dialogue” in which indigence drives its “victim” to moral dejection and murder. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the peasant condition had improved in Piedmont and Lombardy (then under Austrian Rule), thanks especially to the agricultural success of the mulberry tree and the development of a silk industry.

64
Written in 1909 and published in 1913.

65
Published in 1883. Verga had already denounced the horror of a povertydriven rebellion, which actually took place in Sicily, during the
Risorgimento
. See ”Liberià” in
Novelle rusticane
(Turin: F. Casanova, 1883).

66
Edmondo De Amicis (1846–1908) was a progressive intellectual open to socialist ideas. Besides
Cuore
(Heart), he wrote travel books like
Spagna
(Spain, 1873) and novels like
Amore e ginnastica
(Love and gymnastics, 1892).
Sull’oceano
(On the ocean, 1899) is an account of the terrible conditions in which Italian immigrants traveled by sea to America.
Primo maggio
(May day), one of his most significant accomplishments as a writer of “socially minded” literature, was published only in 1980.

67
Pagine sparse
(Milan: Treves, 1911),”.

68
Camporesi, introduction, xi-xx.

69
See
Igiene di epicuro
(Epicurean Hygene [Naples: Società editrice partenopea, 1910], 72). The subject is treated at length in Mantegazza’s earlier book,
Igiene della cucina
(Hygiene in the kitchen [Milan: Brigola, 1867]) from which the preceding quote is derived (36–7). A a bon vivant who personally shopped for his food, and who happily recognized Artusi’s competence in selecting cooks (”the new cook Orsolina is the best I’ve had in all my life. Every day she prepares a new a dish and they are all, or almost all, excellent. Every day I praise my friend Artusi who recommended her to me”). See his
Giornale
, 10 Dec. 1894, quoted by Capatti and Pollarini. See their edition of Artusi,
Autobiografia
(Milan: II Saggiatore, 1993, 136). Paolo Mantegazza was born in Monza in 1831 and died in La Spezia in 1910, one year before his esculent friend. He is a perfect example of Italian neo-positivistic thinking. In his book
The Physiology of Pleasure
(1854), pleasure is divided into three very neat categories: senses, emotions, intellect. Mantegazza’s passion for taxonomy leads him to some revealing subdivisions. For example, the first category is broken down into three classes of tactile experiences (plastic, epidermic, sexual), followed by taste, smell, music, sight, and three kinds of inebriation (from coffee, alcohol, and drugs). These types of pleasure are then “measured” on various, and somewhat undefined, ethnic groups ranging from Greeks, to Bolivians, Chinese, Guaranis. Each group is graded with a scale of signs of descending value: 2, 1, +, -. Indians, for instance, pull a 2 in plastic tactilism, together with the Belgians, while Italians, Germans, Chinese, Dutch, and French people have to content themselves with a 1. Worse still fare the Brazilians and “Northamericans” (+), while Argentines, Spaniards, and Arabs flunk altogether (-). Other books by Mantegazza (a truly “impressive” list of publications) include:
Fisiologia dell’amore
(Physiology of love, 1873J;
Fisiologia del hello
(Physiology of beauty, 1891);
Fisiologia della donna
(Physiology of woman, 1893),
Elogio della vecchiaia
(In praise of old age, 1895), etc. In 1887 he published
Testa
(Head), a novel written “in response” to De Amici’s
Cuore
. A pioneer in numerous scientific endeavors, he was among the first to experiment with artificial insemination. Flattered by the interest shown for his book by such an illustrious personage, Artusi thanks him profusely in his “Story of a Book That Is a Bit Like the Story of Cinderella”:

after so many setbacks, a man of genius suddenly appeared and took up my cause. Professor Paolo Mantegazza, with that quick and ready wit that is his trademark, immediately recognized that my work indeed had some merit… He said: “With this book you have done a good deed; may it have a thousand editions.”

”Too many,” said I. “I would be happy with two.” Later, to my great astonishment and surprise, he praised the book and recommended it to the audience at two of his lectures.”

Mrs Mantegazza was also an admirer. A letter of praise she sent to Artusi on 14 November, 1897, complements the one he cites from Olindo Guerrini at the conclusion of “A Few Health Guidelines.” See pp. 21–3 below.

70
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the reduction of workers’ wages, which had been decreed concomitantly with the increase in the cost of flour and therefore of bread: a kilogram of bread cost 40 cents of a lira, a full hour of work was compensated with 18 cents.

71
See the complete text on line:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii_enc_1505891 rerum novarum_en.html
.

72
See the Florentine pages of this American sculptor’s biography penned “From Letters, Diaries and Recollections” by Henry James
(William Wetmore Story and His Friends
[Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903]).

73
Pellegrino Artusi,
Autobiografia
, ed. Alberto Capatti and Andrea Pollarini (Milan: II Saggiatore, 1993),
96
. No one in his right mind, apart from food history
aficionados
, would bother to read this document, which its own editors do not hesitate to describe as lacking “an essential quality: appetite and food … Parties and banquets are carefully avoided, and when it would highly desirable to expect something about the culinary experiments that made Artusi famous, the manuscript comes to an end.” Luckily, what the
Autobiografia
holds back, Capatti’s and Pollarini accompanying text provides with doubled interest.

74
Ibid., 85.

75
On “ February, 1929, during Pius XI’s pontificate, a historic agreement was reached between the Italian government and the Vatican, re-establishing the political power and diplomatic standing of the Catholic Chuch. Prime Minister Mussolini signed for Italy, Cardinal Gasparri for the Holy See. Newspapers all over the world proclaimed that the “wound” inflicted on the Vatican had been healed.

76
Literally, a “priest-eater.”

77
Artusi,
Autobiografia
, 94.

78
On 27 April 1859, “at six o clock p.m., the prince and his family, accompanied by members of the diplomatic body all the way to the State border, took leave of the silent crowd and made way towards Bologna.” Thus the
Monitore Toscano
, of 28 April. And this too is a sample of bourgeois culture: taking down a regime without shedding a single drop of blood.

79
Capatti and Pollarini, eds.,
Autobiografia
, 15.

80
Ibid., 47.

81
In the dialect of Emilia-Romagna, a small and very swift eel.

82
Artusi,
Autobiografia
, 101.

83
Cit. p. 43.

84
See Giancarlo Roversi, “Pellegrino Artusi a Bologna,” 129–30. Artusi himself makes no mention of it in his
Autobiografia
. Whatever private school he may have attended, he writes proudly as a self-taught gentleman. At the same time, he is intimidated by those (like his friend Mantegazza) whose sophistication and knowledge were officially recognized.

85
The Pelloni gang’s legendary invasion of Forlimpopoli is one of the most celebrated episodes of nineteenth-century Italian history (in fact, there are at least seventeen novelized versions of the bandit’s life, and countless folk songs, poems, plays, and “historical” accounts, which continued to be brought forth by Italian writers and
publishers with great frequency and success through the 1970s). Born in 1824, he lived to be only twenty-six: betrayed by one of his own men, he was killed by the pontifical gendarmes in March of 1851. Most famous is the mention poet Giovanni Pascoli makes of him in his “Romagna” (see
Myricae
, also published for the first time in 1891), where the bandit is described as “courteous” and lauded as “king of the forest, king of the highway.” And while many tall tales have been derived from the events of 25 January, 1851, perhaps the most reliable source is the report filed on the following day by the commander of the gendarmes of the Forli Station: “Purporting to be Public Forces, the robbers took possession of [one of] the city gates [facing Forli] … Then they headed toward the theater where a comic performance
[La morte di Sisam
, a tragedy, according to Artusi and others] was under way and they disarmed the guards there. Three of the robbers mounted the stage, and when the curtain rose for the second act, they pointed their guns at the audience. Dumbfounded by the way in which and by the place where they were being threatened with death if any one of them moved, and horrified and convinced that a great number of men blocked their exit from the theater and the city, none of them dared to flee for home. The list [of town dignitaries, previously obtained by Pelloni’s Gang] was read and those listed were forced to make a pecuniary contribution … The robbers then entered the homes of those tallied and those of other noblemen as well. Without any regard to age or condition, the robbers made enormous abuses and they did not even spare those who were ill. In vain, they attempted to force open the doors to the Bank of the Monte di Pieta. They violated a woman.” Transcribed from Leonida, Costa,
Il rovescio della medaglia: storia inedita del brigante Stefano Pelloni detto il Passatore
(Faenza: Fratelli Lega Editori, 1976), 379–81. For a more detailed report of the events of that day, see Francesco Serantini,
Fatti memorabili della Banda del Passatore in terra di Romagna
(Faenza: Fratelli Lega Editori, 1929). Max David (
Il Romanzo del “Passatore
” [Milan: Rusconi, 1977], 66) wrote that Artusi’s father was in attendance and that despite his efforts not to reveal the location of his home, he was accompanied there by some of Pelloni’s men: “However well informed they may have been, Stuane’s (vernacular for Stefano) men had labored greatly trying to find the address of the [Artusi] family. But in Forlimpopoli everyone knew everyone and it only took a few slaps to make one of the victims talk. When the robbers arrived at the home, the old Artusi managed in time to hide. But his son Pellegrino and his three sisters, who had sought refuge on the roof, remained there. One of the sisters, Gertrude, paid dearly as a result of her fear: she went mad and died in an asylum.” In his
Autobiografia
(82) Artusi objects, rather elegantly, I must add, to the rendition of the event authored by another poet: “ [Arnaldo] Fusinato was poorly inspired in my opinion, when he thought he could narrate the worthy enterprise of the Ferryman in playful verse.” Considering that of the “50,000 singing
scudi
” pocketed by the gang, many had to be contributed directly by his family, and that, above all, the violated woman was more than likely Artusi’s own sister Gertrude, the idea of defining Fusinato as a victim of poor inspiration is a stroke of genius as well as a rare, and not easily forgettable, touch of class.

86
For himself as well as for others. He regarded railroad stocks and treasury bonds as the most secure investments. See Artusi,
Autobiografia, l06
. Illustrated by a slightly misinformed biographical profile, Artusi’s name actually appears in the
Dizionario storico dei banchieri italiani
(Historical dictionary of Italian bankers; Florence, 1951).