La Singolare Dottrina di M. Domenico
Venice: Michele Tramezzino.
Early Edition. Hardcover (Vellum). Good Condition. Item #CAT001001
Contemporary vellum, soiled, worn, text block coming loose, tear with substantial loss to title page with paper repair and missing bit supplied in poor manuscript. Old writing to front and rear endpapers, browning to a few sections, scattered minor foxing and staining. Unmarked otherwise. (16), 376 leaves. Complete. Cagle 1174, Bitting 403, Simon BB 565 and BG 1307, Vicarie 747, Notaker 908.2
Appearing variously in bibliographies as the first or second edition, this copy is dated 1560, as the first, but has "Panunto" instead of "Panonto" on the title, as the dated editions from 1560 and 1570 both have. Notaker believes it was printed somewhere between these two editions, maybe a piracy, maybe a reprint. It is identical to the 1560 first edition textually.
While, like Scappi, Romoli's treatise is aimed at the upper classes, it is a substantially less elevated in ingredients and quantities than Scappi's Opera which was prepared for the Pope. Romoli's work is prepared as seasonal menus for each day beginning in March 1546, but begins with general chapters on bread, meat, fish, then daily menus, including things like a pasta dish for each month, seasonal dishes for chicken,, mutton, lamb, squid, octopus, oysters. turtles. Further sections feature lamprey, ricotta pie, a large group of mushroom recipes, maccheroni alla Romana with hard provatura cheese, sugar and cinnamon. The spices use is restrained compared to what it would have been a few decades earlier, and the dishes , while still owing some inspiration to late medieval cookeries like Platina's, have generally moved on from the heavy, ingredient laden dishes of Northern Europe. It includes mention of early biscotti (mostaccioli napoletani), the first printed recipe for "frappe" the Italian carnivale specialty. Along with Scappi and Messibugo, one of the three great works of Renaissance Italian cookery, and the least reprinted of the three.
Scarce in libraries, 23 copies dated 1560 in OCLC. Rare in commerce. Size: 1560. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 1 kilo. Category: Cooking, Wine & Dining; Inventory No: CAT001001.
Price: $3,600.00