Two sources for Mediterranean Renaissance Cuisine: Nola and Como

“Libre del Coch” or “Libro de Guisados, manjares y potajes” by Ruperto de Nola

The book says little about its author – just that he was the head cook of king Hernando (or Fernando) of Naples. It is thought that this refers to Fernando I, “the old”, son of  Alfonso I (previously V de Aragón) who reigned in Naples between 1423 and 1494. This king apparently spoke a mix of castillian Spanish and Napolitan and kept a cosmopolitan court. It is then not surprising that Nola includes aragonese, catalan, french, moorish, italian etc. recipes in his cookbook. The origins and nationality of Nola are unknown. 

Because no ordinals are used when speaking of this king, it is believed that the book was written around the middle of the 15th century. Three editions have been preserved:
1.  a catalan edition from 1520
2. a castillian edition, printed in Toledo in 1525 after being “corrected and amended”
3. another castillian edition, printed in Logroño in 1529 by the same editor

Further editions, at least 5 in catalan and some 8 in castillian, were printed during the 16th century but have been lost. The book was also plagiarized, with large parts of the 1525 text appearing in Diego Granado’s “Arte de Cocina”, printed in 1599.

The book I am using gives a transcription of the full text, indicating which paragraphs were peculiar to which edition.
 

“Libro de Arte Culinaria” by Martino da Como

Martino, prince of cooks¹, was a native of the Blenio valley, now in Switzerland, just north of Como. He was the cook to the Patriarch of Aquileya, Lodovico Trevisani (1401-1465), in Rome. He later served the King of Arms Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (¿?-1518), who married a Neapolitan lady and spent some time in Naples at the service of the aragonese king. He wrote several recipe books that have been preserved and his work also appears and is praised in Platina’s book De honesta voluptate (written 1467-1470). He could have been educated in Naples and he may have known Nola, since his cooking is full of references to Iberian recipes. 

The book I have includes a translation of one of his recipe books, one preserved in the Library of Congress in Washington, USA. This must have been written by Martino towards 1450, but printed only towards the end of the 15th century.

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