Christoforo Messisbugo

I have found that information on the Christoforo Messisbugo and his book(s)is very scarce. There are several sites on the Internet that list recipes by M. Messisbugo or supposed biographical information on him, but none with any concrete source material. There are some references to his book, Banchetti, Compositioni di Vivande et Apparecchio Generale, published in 1549. Some general sources I have seen indicate that Messisbugo died in 1548, so the Banchetti would have been published posthumously. Then, eight years after the Banchetti first appeared, the Libro Novo was published, with much the same format as the Banchetti. I have just recently obtained a facsimile of the Banchetti, but have not had time to do a comparative study of the two texts.

Messisbugo was not a chef. He was a steward at the court of the Duke of Este. Yet he is revered even today for his contribution to the culinary arts. In Ferrara, Italy, where he lived and worked, there is now a culinary school dedicated to preserving and spreading the knowledge that he imparted in these two books. There are restaurants throughout Italy that use versions of recipes that are found in his books.

What information I do have on the Libro Novo or its author, M. Christofaro Messisbugo, (apart from the manuscript itself, which is rich with recipes and kitchen management information, but says nothing about the author) was obtained from some class notes I obtained, along with copies of the cookbook manuscript and dictionary, from Master Basilius Phocas (Charles Potter). Master Basilius has translated the Libro Novo and has found a small amount of background information on M. Messisbugo. While Master Basilius does not remember where he obtained this information (most likely a related document in Italian) I would still like to quote from his brief biographical sketch of M. Messisbugo:

“Christofaro di Messisbugo worked as a maitre d’hotel at the court of the Duke of Este in Ferrara during the first decades of the sixteenth century. He was a gentleman in his own right, related to illustrious families, and, through his skill as a chief steward of the pleasures of the table, he earned such esteem that Charles V conferred on him in 1533 the title of Count Palatine.

“His functions ranged from seeing to the smallest details of the cooking to the organization of the court’s most splendid celebrations. Such was his authority that he brought together the fruits of his experience in a textbook (Banchetti, Compositioni di Vivande et Apparecchio Generale, 1549), written in three parts and destined for others in his profession.

“The first part deals with the domestic apparatus necessary for holding princely banquets: There is an inventory of indispensable kitchen utensils and household gadgets and a list of jobs to be performed by the staff and of the foodstuffs to be preserved. The second part describes fourteen real feasts, chosen to illustrate different types of celebration. The third part contains 315 recipes. The precise nature of the information gives the book an especial value.”

I have spent some time with the original Italian in the Libro Novo, and have translated a hand full of the recipes. Fortunately, Master Basilius completed the translation of all of the recipes, and spared me that laborious task (I am NOT a linguist). I plan to do some comparative study on the Banchetti and the Libro Novo together. In the meantime, I am going to cook. Bringing these recipes to life so today's cooks can enjoy them is a dream that I intend to have come true.

Watch here for my notes on successes and failures as I travel to Ferrera and sample cuisine created over four hundred years ago. It is going to be a wondrous journey.