Visual Pedagogy in Bartolomeo Scappi's Opera

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, “Cooking as Research Methodology: Experi- Scappi’s discourse with his apprentice, meat-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

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