From Book to Cook: Visual Pedagogy in Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera

Laura Libert

The Opera di Bartolomeo Scappi, hereafter to be referred published in 2007.3 Deborah Krohn, in her 2008 article to as the Opera, was originally published in 1570, by a pair “Picturing the Kitchen: Renaissance Treatise and Period of well-established publishers, the brothers Michele and Rooms,” situates the plates of kitchen interiors as accurate Francesco Tramezzino. Its author, Bartolomeo Scappi (c. depictions of Renaissance domesticity.4 In a 2010 anthology 1500 - April 13, 1577) was a renowned Renaissance chef. on Renaissance culinary readings, Ken Albala advocates a He served under several cardinals, as well as popes Pius IV hands-on approach as he dissects some of Scappi’s recipes and Pius V. The work consists of six volumes, dedicated to in his chapter, “ as Research Methodology: Experi- Scappi’s discourse with his apprentice, -day dishes, ments in Renaissance Cuisine.”5 lean-day dishes, preparing meals, pastry, and dishes for the Though Scappi’s Opera is well known and quite lauded sick, respectively. There are twenty-eight engravings which in the literature of culinary history, its contribution to the accompany the text. Their depictions range from the design art of scientific observation and the burgeoning subculture and organization of an ideal kitchen, to the plethora of uten- of empirical observers has not been adequately addressed. sils necessary for the effective execution of Scappi’s recipes, Science historian Pamela Smith, in her article “Science on to the mechanics of specific equipment. The illustrations the Move: Recent Trends in the History of Early Modern provide a wealth of information regarding contemporary Science,” argues that the most important shift in the histori- equipment and interior spatial organization. The quality of ography of science is the expansion of what might fall under the images, the meticulous detail of the text, and the publica- its umbrella. According to Smith, early modern science is “a tion of seven subsequent editions of this compendium mark story of an intersection of vernacular and scholarly literature, it as a focal point in the evolution of the modern conception which brought about a new union of hand and mind.”6 of the cookbook.1 Acknowledging this intersection allows one to consider the Scholars have addressed several aspects of this monu- applicability of other epistemic categories, such as techni- mental contribution to culinary history. Terence Scully, in cal and how-to writing. Although such disciplines do not addition to his complete translation of Scappi’s Opera in neatly fall into broader scientific ontologies, Smith asserts 2008, provides an historical and political context for both that this multidisciplinary approach allows the scholar to Scappi’s life and his employers within the curia. Scully “[examine] science not as a purely intellectual activity, but includes commentary on Scappi’s legacy, applicable infor- as a material and technical activity as well.”7 Through this mation on relevant names mentioned within the Opera, lens, it is possible to consider other fields which evolved in and modern interpretations of preparation, execution, and concert with time-honored scientific ontologies, especially terminology within the recipes themselves.2 June Di Schino when one draws parallels between their respective structures and Furio Luccichenti, after exhaustive archival research, and practices, or, to put it another way, when one considers compiled an unprecedented biography on the master cook, where the crossroads of hand and mind meet.

I would like to thank Dr. Stephanie Leitch for her indispensable guid- Gangemi, 2007). ance, and the FSU Art History Department Faculty and Staff for their support during the crafting of this research project. 4 See Deborah L. Krohn, “Picturing the Kitchen: Renaissance Treatise and Period Room,” Studies in the Decorative Arts 16, no. 1 (2008): 1 Bartolomeo Scappi, The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L’arte et 20-34, doi:10.1086/652812. Prudenza D’un Maestro Cuoco, trans. Terence Scully (Toronto: Univer- sity of Toronto Press, 2008), 73. The opera was made available to the 5 See Ken Albala, “Cooking as Research Methodology: Experiments in public up to eight times until 1646. See also Henry Notaker, Printed Renaissance Cuisine,” in Renaissance Food from Rabelais to Shake- Cookbooks in Europe, 1470-1700: A Bibliography of Early Modern speare: Culinary Readings and Culinary Histories, ed. Joan Fitzpatrick Culinary Literature (New Castle, DE: 2010), 309-15: Notaker lists all (Farnham, Surrey, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010), 73-88. potential edition dates from 1570-1646. 6 Pamela H. Smith, “Science on the Move: Recent Trends in the History 2 See Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully. of Early Modern Science,” in Renaissance Quarterly 62, no. 2 (2009): 357, doi:10.1086/599864. 3 See June Di Schino and Furio Luccichenti, Il cuoco segreto dei papi: Bartolomeo Scappi e la Confraternita dei cuochi e dei pasticceri (Roma: 7 Smith, “Science on the Move,” 357. athanor xxxiv laura libert

In the introduction to Histories of Scientific Observation, attentive waiting.”9 In this understanding, observation was editors Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck note that not an interactive experience; rather, it existed in the realm “observation is the most pervasive and fundamental practice of marginalia, both in theory and in practice. There was no of all the modern sciences… [it] educates the senses, cali- direct relationship between the observer and the observed brates judgment, picks out objects of scientific inquiry, and object beyond patient attention, and more often than not forges ‘thought collectives’… Its instruments include not only these observations were recorded as traces of memory, of the naked senses, but also tools such as the telescope and notes in the margins. However, by the fifteenth century, microscope… and a myriad of other ingenious inventions through evolutions in scientific fields such as astronomy, the designed to make the invisible visible, the evanescent perma- previously considered disparate practices of observation and nent, the abstract concrete.”8 In this understanding, the act experiment began to conflate. of observation is inseparable from any ontology which seeks In her chapter “Observation Rising: The Birth of an Epis- knowledge through sensual engagement. Daston and Lun- temic Genre, 1500-1650,” medical historian Gianna Pomata beck’s conclusion of observation as a universal tool mirrors takes the historiography of the practice further, tracing a shift Smith’s assessment of the implications of a macroscopic view in European scholarly culture with the rise in assertive pub- of scientific history. Certainly, Scappi’s work encompasses lications described as observationes. Prior to this, the term both how-to writing, and the utilization of the instruments observation had no real currency, either as a philosophical of observation, and its inclusion of numerous illustrations term or an epistemic category. By the middle of the sixteenth acknowledges a cross-section of mind and hand. Therefore, century, however, it proliferated in fields such as astronomy within the historical framework set up by contributors to this and astrology. There are two specific points to note in this anthology, one may argue that the illustrations in Scappi’s shift; changes in the meaning of the action and the meaning Opera have a two-fold function: first, they serve as visual of the term. As Park delineates the act of observation from evidence of the changing conception of observation and its passive to active, Pomata traces the literary shift of observa- implications for acquiring knowledge in the early modern tion from a practice recorded in the marginalia of scholarly period; second, these engravings document a profound work, to the forefront as a plural title. She initially tracks this evolution in the conception of the modern cookbook, from change in the field of astronomy, in which she claims one archival document to instructional manual. sees a “transformation in observationes from marginalia or In order to trace this epistemic evolution, this paper private work records, meant at most for scribal transmission will first elucidate the shifting conception of observation in from mentor to pupil, into printed book material addressed the early modern period, from passive practice to empirical to a wider public.”10 Observationes were now synonymous action, as outlined by Katherine Park and Gianna Pomata in with intellectual agency and scholarly autonomy. The value Histories of Scientific Observation. Second, that shift will be of observation had attained an unprecedented significance, applied to what this paper presents as parallel evolutions of especially when ascertained through the agency of an expert. the recipe collection leading up to and including Scappi’s There was now a recognized cognitive engagement with what Opera. Then, Scappi’s work will be distinguished from con- one used to passively observe. This adaptation extended temporary examples by describing how the images function beyond astronomy. It cropped up in other disciplines as didactically in relation to the text. Finally, this paper analyzes well: philology, medicine, natural history, and, as shown in a selection of the illustrations and how they visually convey this paper, in the culinary arts. information in order to show how these portrayals of tools, spaces, and functional equipment mirror didactic tropes Observationes in the Context of the Pre-Modern Cookbook undertaken in other scientific fields. The evolution of culinary record, from recipe collec- tion to the modern conception of the cookbook parallels Passive Observation to Active Observer Pomata’s discussion of burgeoning observationes. From the The major shift in the practice of observation, from middle ages through the Renaissance, cooks did not have the middle ages to the modern period, was fundamentally their own guild or universal regulations. Though they did not a shift in its agency. Science historian Katherine Park, in call themselves professionals, their craft was still, in essence, her chapter “Observations on the Margins: 500-1500,” the same as a silversmith or a .11 Cooking was and is differentiates experience from observation as the two still a trade practically entrenched in knowledge acquisition were conceived in the middle ages. Namely, the medieval gained through the combination of observation and hands-on concept of experience lay in the notion of test or trial, like experience. Especially in larger households, a cook started an experiment, while observation related to “watching and at the bottom rung of the kitchen’s hierarchy (usually as a

8 Lorraine Daston and Elizabeth Lunbeck, “Introduction: Observation 10 Gianna Pomata, “Observation Rising: Birth of an Epistemic Genre, Observed,” in Histories of Scientific Observation, ed. Lorraine Daston 1500-1650,” in Histories of Scientific Observation, 49. and Elizabeth Lunbeck (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 1. 11 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 4. 9 Katherine Park, “Observation on the Margins, 500-1500,” in Histories of Scientific Observation, 18.

42 from book to cook: visual pedagogy in bartolomeo scappi’s opera

scullion or pot scrubber) and worked his way through various a total of 160 images interspersed with the text (see Figures stations, such as or pastry, as he acquired the neces- 1-3, and 6). Though its organization is slightly different from sary skills to become a master cook.12 The process of cooking Scappi’s Opera, Rumpolt also composed what he considered for a lord, much like cooking in a restaurant today, required an all-encompassing compendium. The first section outlines memorized motions, learned through mimicry. Cooks did the typical duties of a servant in a princely household and not, and do not, generally read a recipe while they prepare a list of banquet menus follows. The subsequent recipe a meal. The repertoire exists in their heads. section contains 2000 entries, organized into chapters for Recipe collections, the forerunner to the modern meat from different domestic and wild animals, as well as conception of the cookbook, existed for centuries prior to side dishes, pastry, , and conserves. The final section Scappi’s conception of his Opera. However, their function includes recipes for wine and beer.16 There are illustrations was primarily archival. They were part of an established prac- interspersed with the text, while Scappi’s are bound together. tice of generational bequest in the form of culinary record. However, after closer inspection it becomes clear that these In reality, recorded recipes and menus often acted as little illustrations are merely aesthetic afterthoughts. They do not more than an aide-mémoire, whether it was for the master engage on a didactic level with the text. While there are cook, the steward as they planned a menu, or the lord who several small woodcuts of animals, , and kitchen utensils, desired a written record of his livelihood. According to Ter- they lack any pedagogical function, beyond a placeholder, ence Scully, however, Scappi’s recipes transcend bequest. or content marker. The printer used the same illustrations Though many do echo established dishes, he modifies them, for discussions of different species of fish, for example (see whether through ingredients or process of preparation.13 In Figures 2-3 for comparison).17 It would seem that these il- addition, Scappi’s work augments the traditional recipe col- lustrations function as content markers, so as the reader flips lection with the inclusion of didactic images. through, the illustration of a fish may catch the eye, indicating Scappi’s Opera was one of the first compilations to the section sought. Scappi’s illustrations, by contrast, engage include detailed illustrations, a unique incorporation in a directly with the text. medium that arose without pedagogical illustration of any kind. Most medieval recipe collections lacked any didactic Scappi’s Pedagogy in Word and in Image visual material. According to Henry Notaker, at most they Scappi’s work separates itself from its predecessors and had only aesthetic adornments adopted from illuminated contemporaries through the meticulous nature of its text, as manuscripts, such as head- and tail- pieces and ornamental well as its images. According to Michelle DiMeo and Sarah initials. A well known contemporary with Scappi’s Opera was Pennell in Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550-1800, De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine, by Bartolomeo Sacchi, “the pre-modern recipe appears a very foreign body when who was also known as Platina. Though it was the first printed compared to the precision and guidance typical of those cookbook in Europe, De Honest Voluptate was essentially in a twenty-first century copy of Good Housekeeping. The a compendium of preceding recipe collections. Most likely dominant form of recipe encountered throughout these texts written in 1464 or 1465, it was built on medieval and clas- is… a schema involving a rehearsal of actions as they are or sic dietetic traditions, and on recipes originally conceived should be carried out.”18 They argue that by their very nature, or collected by the north Italian cook Martino de Rossi.14 By recipes are records of trial-and-error experimentation, com- the first half of the sixteenth century, some examples exist parable in a sense, to Pomata’s discussion of observationes. with woodcut title pages, while portrait frontispieces have Once standardized by a perceived expert, they gain a sense only been found in texts published in England and Italy.15 of legitimacy. However, DiMeo and Pennell perceive a gap There are some contemporaneous examples with a between “prescription and practice”—namely, there is a gap wealth of illustrations, but they do not actively or accurately between the recipe’s legibility and the knowledge of the engage with the text. Marx Rumpolt’s Ein neu Kochbuch, first person reading it.19 Scappi navigates this gap between the printed in 1581, after Scappi’s initial 1570 publication, had master cook and the neophyte, not only in the inclusion of 12 Ibid., 3. Henrietta Maria, Robert May, Kenelm Digby, Hannah Woolley, al- though the portrait in Mrs. Woolley’s text is not of her, but of another 13 Ibid., 6. lady, according to the Dictionary of National Biography. In Italy, see texts by Messisbugo, Stefani, Latini, and, of course, Scappi. 14 Notaker, Printed Cookbooks in Europe, 327. For a translation and commentary of this text see Platina and Mary Ella Milham, Platina, 16 Notaker, Printed Cookbooks in Europe, 243-44. on right pleasure and good health: a critical edition and translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval and 17 Ibid., 13. Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1998). For a translation and commen- tary of Martino de Rossi’s Libro de Arte Coquinaria, see also: Maestro 18 Michelle DiMeo, Sara Pennell, and Francisco Alonso Almeida, Reading Martino, Luigi Ballerini, Jeremy Parzen, and Stefania Barzini, The Art and Writing Recipe Books, 1550-1800 (New York: Distributed in the of Cooking: The First Modern Cookery Book (Berkeley: University of United States by Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 6. California Press, 2005). 19 DiMeo, et al. Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 7. 15 Notaker, Printed Cookbooks in Europe, 13. In England, see texts by

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illustrations, but in the straightforward, vernacular language Scappi does not assume that his reader understands of his text. basic cooking procedures and the nature of foodstuffs: he In a preamble addressed to his apprentice Giovanni, provides lengthy explanations which incorporate several Scappi declares his overall purpose: “I am prepared… to senses to convey a food’s inherent quality.24 Additionally, give you fully the directions and procedures to govern you his recipes include culinary advice and commentary. When in the function of that Office, so that you can with honest an egg, for example, Scappi advises to “break an craft serve any Illustrious Prince…. I shall set out for you egg into a spoon that is not holed, which has a little cold briefly in these five books [sic] wherein the art and craft water in it. When the water in the pot boils, put the egg into of a Master Cook lies, from which I beg you never to part, it and take the pot off the heat so it does not boil too strongly for by past experience I know them to be very necessary because there is a danger you’ll break the egg.”25 Previous for anyone who wishes to reach perfection and to acquire recipe writers relied on the reader’s inherent knowledge of honor in it.”20 In his textual layout of the books to come, cookery and basic procedure; they could afford to abbreviate Scappi references the included illustrations, “Furthermore, and record the basic facts of a recipe. This made sense when you will see… how to arrange various furnishings proper to the recipe collection was intended for internal household that office, as will be presented in the drawings and sketches use alone, as an aide-mémoire. However, Scappi is writing where there will be three different kitchens, along with the for a wider public, so he tries to be as precise as possible. fixtures and furnishings for the chambers of a conclave.”21 In Through his meticulous detail of the ingredients one uses, to the dedication as in the following recipes and commentary, the preparation of those ingredients, he strives to provide a Scappi’s text effectively conflates observation with experi- neophyte a comprehensive understanding of foods and cook- ence, paralleling the trend set forth in the mid-sixteenth ing. Furthermore, the plates themselves closely relate to the century by astronomers and their developing observationes. text, illuminating matters with which Scappi specifically deals. Though Scappi dedicates his treatise to his apprentice, this The first four plates dictate the layout of an ideal kitchen is a printed book made available to the public, and a book in which the range of routine activities can most efficiently which went through seven subsequent editions. Scappi’s be accommodated (Figure 4). Plate one depicts “The loca- commentary to his apprentice effectively transitions from the tion, form and layout of a kitchen, and the arrangement of marginalia of advice from teacher to pupil into a dissemina- furnishings of that Office,” as Scappi describes in the text of tion of information to a larger audience. Book I.26 The layout is reminiscent of a stage, a room with Scappi goes beyond descriptions of actions. His instruc- one wall removed. At the back wall there is a hearth. The tions for dishes are meticulously thorough. He includes actual fire licks a nondescript animal as a cook rotates the spit on amounts of ingredients (a very new inclusion). In Book I, which it is skewered. The spit-turner is protected by a parti- he provides a universal spice mixture which delineates the tion, though he appears to raise a hand to protect his face, exact amounts needed to yield a pound of seasoning.22 He indicating the intensity of the heat. Above, a hood captures deals systematically with how to prepare every normally the smoke from the fire. The walls are punctuated with edible part of every normally edible animal, fowl, fish or shelves, filled with various utensils and rags. Hooks hang from plant. Scappi utilizes the language of an astute observer—his the ceiling, suspending pieces of and fowl. The middle expertise a result of his experience and discerning eye. He ground has a water tank on the left and a series of burners often uses anecdotal phrases in the narrative of his work, on the right, while the foreground hosts three prep tables, indicating his own observationes with phrases like, “I have upon which a plethora of kitchen utensils are strewn, many found that…,” or “experience has shown me that….” He of which are depicted more closely in the following engrav- begins the aforementioned spice mixture recipe with the ings. Labels demarcate the purpose of particular furnishings; remark “experience has shown me that every sort of spice, for example, the shelf located near the ceiling on the right when it is fresh and not more than a year old, gives off a wall, is meant to store hand towels. In the text, Scappi begins good aroma and is much better and flavors any dish better by describing a main kitchen’s ideal location: as remote a than an old spice.”23 space as possible.27 In his following description of its ideal

20 Scappi, Opera, f 1r-1v. In Scully translation and commentary, see page The [mild-flavored] and thick kinds are better in dishes and pottages 97-98. than for , but those that are clear and less fatty are better suited for frying than others… should you keep olive oil for any length of time, 21 Ibid., Scappi, 1v. In Scully, see page 98. store it in well-stopped vessels of smooth stoneware or earthenware.”

22 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 114. 25 Ibid., 374. Described in Recipe 268.

23 Ibid. 26 Ibid., 100.

24 Ibid., 42. For example, in Scappi’s work in Book I, he informs the 27 Ibid. Scappi indicates that the best location for a kitchen is “in a remote reader how to tell quality of olive oil, and how to preserve it: “as far place rather than in a more public area. This is for several reasons, as I have been able to find out, there are many kinds of oil—that is, particularly to avoid the distractions that accompany the concourse of strong and mild, heavy and light, cloudy and clear, pale and [colored]. people, along with the dangers, and to avoid annoying those dwelling

44 from book to cook: visual pedagogy in bartolomeo scappi’s opera

layout, he specifically mentions the burners, the oven, the level as a written list, they go beyond their inventorial fore- water tank and faucets, tables, the hooks, the heat shield bears. The objects are placed in rows. They are labeled and for the spit turner, the fireback, and the chopping bench.28 visually differentiated so as not to appear repetitive. Unlike The description mirrors the subsequent illustration. A similar a written list, however, they are depicted with an unprec- construction is mimicked in the following three engravings, edented attention to detail. which depict “the Room next to the kitchen,” “the scullery,” All told, these plates give an accurate description of 57 and a “cool place for dairy products,” respectively. kitchen utensils and 67 containers, and often the object is When compared with a woodcut illustration of a kitchen labeled with its precise use.32 These utensils are so precisely interior from Rumpolt’s text, Scappi’s reigns superior in the rendered, that one wonders if the artist had a three-dimen- dissemination of information (Figure 1). Rumpolt’s image sional example for reference. According to Barbara Jatta, seems purely aesthetic, at best a generic marker of content. and supported by Scully, it is possible the artist and Scappi As a frontispiece, its relation to the text is generic, intended worked together. Jatta, of the Gabinetto delle Incisioni della to provide an indication of the kinds of information to be Bibliotecta Apostilica Vaticana, found a particularly close sty- found in the following pages. The figures, the surrounding listic similarity between the work of the Tramezzino brothers’ environment and the cornucopia of utensils and foodstuffs anonymous engraver and the artist Ambrogio Brambilla, a are squeezed into the frame. Nothing is demarcated. This respected engraver in Rome at this time.33 Although previous is more a romanticized conception of a kitchen environ- documentation situates the Tramezzinos in Venice, accord- ment than an explanatory layout. Scappi’s, by contrast, is ing to Jatta, the brothers were actually living in Rome for a diagrammatic in organization, in order to reinforce his textual portion of their career, in the Parione district. Thus, if both explanations. Taken as a group, Scappi’s four kitchen illustra- the printer and the possible engraver were in the same city tions depict distinct spaces and specific vessels and utensils. as Scappi when he compiled his Opera, it is likely they could Unlike Rumpolt’s imagery, these plates indicate an attention and would have collaborated.34 Scully echoes this likelihood. to observing the materials and equipment used, beyond an Like Krohn, Scully claims that the depictions of interiors, aesthetic approach to a functional level.29 Though the linear environmental conditions and the instruments at a cook’s perspective is most definitely askew, this creates an additional disposal are meticulously and accurately rendered. It is as if level of engagement between image and text. Scappi wants the artist had Scappi, and his tools, at their disposal.35 Plate the focus to be on the location of the items in relation to 8 depicts various vessels at the cook’s disposal, and again others, thus it is not so much about naturalistically depicting there is a marked difference between Scappi and an example a space, as it is about the explanation of tools which should from Rumpolt’s text (see Figures 5 and 6 for comparison). fit within it. Furthermore, the diagrammatic quality of these In Scappi, there is a quest for clarity, as opposed to image plates is enhanced by the inclusion of human figures. They as topic marker. The engraver has delineated all the vessels are depicted as automatons, there to showcase the process and labeled them accordingly, effectively differentiating them of using a tool or navigating an area. For the novice these and their intended use. Rumpolt’s, in contrast, resembles images convey accurate organization and layout of a here- an assemblage, a vanitas or still-life. Though the image al- tofore hidden workspace. ludes to the text below (a recipe for almond milk), it is not The majority of the remaining plates focus on the various employed in any other concrete didactic fashion. In fact, the utensils that must be available for different culinary proce- same image is repeated a few pages later.36 dures (discussed in Books II, III, V, and VI) and the equip- In all of the enclosed engravings, the emphasis is on ment in an itinerant kitchen (Book IV).30 Deborah Krohn the tools to be used, not on the materials which will be ma- distinguishes these images from contemporary household nipulated, or any depictions of a desired result. Though in inventories, lists of belongings, often drawn up at a lord’s Scappi’s text he describes at length how to preserve certain death.31 Though these plates seem to function on a similar foodstuffs, and how it should look at its peak, food is an nearby in the palace with the noise which is normal in a kitchen.” 35 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 39: Scully claims that “for virtually every plate, the artist must have had objects before him which he sketched, 28 Krohn, “Picturing the Kitchen,” 26. he must have been able to visit the places that he depicted in such fine detail.” Scully appears confident in his declaration that the uten- 29 Ibid., 26-27. sils such as the knives and the various containers “had to have been seen, even handled by the engraver. It could only have been Scappi 30 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 629. who put those objects in the artist’s hand and who showed him the fixtures in his own kitchen.” 31 Krohn, “Picturing the Kitchen,” 30. 36 For comparison, see Marx Rumpolt, Ein new Kochbuch, Das ist Ein 32 Di Schino et al., Il cuoco segreto dei papi, 92. gründtliche beschreibung wie man recht und wol, nicht allein von vierfüssigen, heymischen und wilden Thieren, sondern auch von man- 33 Ibid., 94-95. cherley Vögel und Federwildpret darzu von allem grünen und dürren Fischwerck, allerley Speiß ... kochen und zubereiten solle ... (Frankfurt 34 Ibid., 94. am Main: Rumpolt und Feyerabendt, 1581). In online format, see pages 421 and 430, respectively. Additionally, regarding almond milk:

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afterthought in the illustrations. While Rumpolt uses images these tools a three-dimensionality so that the viewer can of game and fowl to denote sections which discuss them, discern their existence in space. It is as if the viewer, perhaps Scappi’s focus is on how the tool manipulates the food. On a burgeoning surgeon, has opened a drawer of a medicine plate 12, below an assortment of storage vessels, chalices, chest. With a discerning eye the reader can view the assort- and measuring scales, an autonomous human figure oper- ment, poised to make an informed selection. ates a device which weights down a foodstuff to secrete a Like the assortment before a reader of Clowes, plate juice (Figure 7). This mechanism, used for applying pressure 13 in Scappi’s work mimics the work of identification and, to a foodstuff, is identified as a “susidio.” Though the term perhaps, inevitable selection (Figure 8). There are no scalpels does apply to the food to be extracted, the illustration does or needles for stitches. Instead, there are 26 instruments not emphasize this. The liquid collected by the cook is non- set out on display, their carrying case among them. This descript. The emphasis is on the apparatus in use. Addition- assortment of knives, skewers and forks are the cook’s sci- ally, plate 13 depicts the typical assortment of knives and entific instruments, his tools with which he investigates and other cutting tools, along with a knife holder for which there manipulates nature. Where Clowes’ engraving appears to is no comparable image in Rumpolt’s text (Figure 9). Rather, achieve clarity through a closer-to-lifesize depiction, Scappi this engraving is comparable to diagrammatic renderings in has opted to organize them in rows with labels, as he does other burgeoning disciplines of the period, namely surgery. in other engravings. The diagrams of tools mimic preced- ing and contemporary inventories of objects, but evolve Tools of the Trade beyond a checklist to pedagogic table through their detail. William Clowes, born in 1544, served as a surgeon to Like Clowes’ illustrations, they are distinguished from one Leicester’s expedition to Normandy, and eventually became another. Unlike Clowes, they are labeled, and each label full surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital and surgeon denotes which tasks, which manipulations of nature, are to Queen Elizabeth. Renowned in his day for extensive accomplished with each tool.38 experience in military surgery, he compiled a treatise on Daston and Lunbeck conclude that “like experiment, the treatment of surgical practice, focused primarily on the observation is a highly contrived and disciplined form of treatment of war injuries. One of his works on the subject, experience that requires training the body and mind, material A Profitable and Necessarie Booke of Observations, was props, techniques of description and visualization, networks published in 1596. It consists of twenty-eight case studies, of communication and transmission, canons of evidence, and and incorporates several illustrations of the necessary tools specialized forms of reasoning.”39 Scully, in his assessment of to execute the procedures. Clowes’ explanatory text, like the images, concludes that they “use graphic art to explain Scappi’s, emphasizes the need for observation and hands-on the material tools of a practical trade more concretely than a experience in order to master the technicality of the job. Ac- mere thousand words could ever do.”40 Beyond the forerun- cording to Clowes, “for anyone to suppose or dream that the ner of the recipe collection, Scappi’s text and the included art comes to a man by succession, because happily his father engravings work in concert to elucidate the training process was a good surgeon, it is a paradoxical opinion, very foolish, of a cook and how a trade is learned. In their dedication to absurd, and fantastical.”37 Among the included illustrations detail and clear explanatory organization, the illustrations in are plates that depict the tools necessary to treat a gunshot Scappi’s Opera simulate the training of an apprentice cook wound. They are not bunched together as a compendium as the individual learns the tools of the trade through both of utensils, incidentally overlapping. They are differentiated experience and observation. and set enough apart so that the viewer can perceive their detail. The use of cross-hatching as a shading device gives Florida State University

According to Terence Scully, on page 59: In the middle ages, Italian cal Journal 2, no. 4623 (1949): 382. I was unable to locate primary cooks could not depend upon cow’s milk as nourishment, partly source by date of submission, it is not footnoted in the secondary because in warm climates it did not last more than a day and partly source. because milk merchants often succumbed to the temptation to water their product. Instead nuts, particularly almonds, yielded a satisfactory 38 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 648: On plate 13, for example, certain substitute. Almond milk, almond cream and almond butter were well labels denote different knives: coltelli da torta—cake knives, coltelli known and much used. Although, by Scappi’s time, cow’s milk was da pasta—pasta knives, ferro da macaroni—a macaroni mold, for an established staple, as well as the butter and cheese made from shaping pasta. it. In Book I, he devotes pages 7 and 8 (in Scully trans., see pages 108-109) to butter and cheese. Both products are normally salted in 39 Daston and Lunbeck, “Introduction,” 3. order to prolong their life. 40 Scappi, Opera, trans. Scully, 39. 37 E. Ashworth Underwood, “An Elizabethan Surgeon,” The British Medi-

46 from book to cook: visual pedagogy in bartolomeo scappi’s opera

Figure 1. [above, and detail right] Marx Rumpolt, Frontispiece, in Ein new Kochbuch, 1587, woodcut, 30.4 x 20 cm. Courtesy of Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

Figure 2. Marx Rumpolt, Page in Ein new Kochbuch, 1587, Figure 3. Marx Rumpolt, Page in Ein new Kochbuch, 1587, woodcut, 30.4 x 20 cm. Courtesy of Lilly Library, Indiana woodcut, 30.4 x 20 cm. Courtesy of Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. University, Bloomington, Indiana.

47 athanor xxxiv laura libert

t Figure 4. [left] Bartolomeo Scappi, An Ideal Kitchen, in 1622 edition of Opera, engraving.

q Figure 5. [below left] Bartolomeo Scappi, Various Vessels, 2, in 1622 edition Opera, engraving.

q Figure 6. [below right] Marx Rumpolt, Page in Ein new Kochbuch, 1587, woodcut, 30.4 x 20 cm. Courtesy of Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.

48 from book to cook: visual pedagogy in bartolomeo scappi’s opera

Figure 7. Bartolomeo Scappi, Vessels, Apparatus, in 1622 edition of Opera, en- graving.

Figure 8. Bartolomeo Scappi, Various Knives, 1622 edition of Opera, engraving.

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