Lecture 19: Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age

Papal Rome and the Spanish Golden Age .....................................

Lecture 19

E

uropean cuisine blossomed in the 16th century and early 17th century.

Big changes in the 16th century—such as how the economy changed

with population growth and infl ation—prompted culinary innovation.

In many cases, factors like a fl ourishing printing industry and increased

literacy rates merely meant the trickling down of practices that were once

exclusively noble, but now can be afforded by others. It also meant a great

deal of innovation and, most importantly, the development of regional

cuisines, which also come to be thought of as national cuisines. This lecture

focuses on 16th-century Italy and 17th-century Spain.

Scappi’s Cookbook

 The cooking of Renaissance Italy, in the great courts of Ferrara

and Florence, involved wild, lavish banquets. Italy did not become

a nation-state until 1860, and in fact, it became the primary

battleground for other nation-states (France and Spain) for the

entire fi rst half of the 16th century. Italian fashions and cooking get

spread around the rest of Europe. It’s most noticeable in the arts.

 Henry II of France marries Catherine de Medici, which was long

held to be the way Italian cooking got to France, including the

craze for things like artichokes and melons and drinking iced wine.

Italian cooking didn’t in fact infl uence the French that much. Apart

from some new vegetables, the French clung persistently to their

own habits.

 Written at about the same time as the Council of Trent and fi rst

published in 1570 is the major monument of Italian culinary art:

Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera, which is arguably the grandest

achievement of Italian culinary literature, written by a man who

was chef to two popes and several cardinals.