Opera di M. Bartolomeo Scappi, cuoco secreto di Papa Pio Quinto divisa in sei libri [bound with] Il Trinciante

Venice: (M. Tramezzino), 1570. First Edition. Hardcover (Vellum). Good Condition. Later but old half vellum over marbled boards, a touch of worming to vellum at edges. Rebound early on with Il Trinciante and with a few leaves moved and missing. With the frontis portrait before the title and the plates moved to the end of the volume, lacking leaf A1, 17 (of 27) plates and the folding plate of knifes and forks in Il Trinciante (but with the plate of tongs, fork and birds on B2). scattered light foxing and browning, old note to title, degradation to edges of final Il Trinciante leaf. Plates with some finger soiling, tiny tears in the margins, light foxing. (4),368 (of 369),(7) lvs; (4), 44 leaves. The 10 present plates depict: table, ladder, broom etc; dairy kitchen; 15 cooking pots; conclave chamber items (2 plates; different vessels and hot vessels; "bell" kitchen; litter, incense burner etc; 2 plates of traveling kitchen accessories.

Vicaire 77 , Cagle 1182, Oberle 75 (the 1605 ed.), Bitting 419 (though with a few different paginations for the 1570 edition)

A largely complete first edition (though priority has proved hard to establish between the 1570 editions) of the greatest cookery treatise of the Renaissance. Not until La Varenne's Cuisinier Française in 1651 would a work of even roughly comparable culinary importance be published (and that is ignoringf the remarkable engravings - including the first fork ever pictured ). Scappi describes the method and implements of a new sort of cookery. Though sprung from and describing elaborate banquets of mind-boggling complexity (one banquet that he describes has 159 dishes), the individual recipes were suitable for middle class tables, and remain fully recognizable as staples of Mediterranean cuisine. Il Trinciante is likewise a first edition and represents the most important and influential Renaissance treatise on carving. It was often bound with later editions of Scappi's Opera. Size: 4to (quarto). Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: Cooking, Wine & Dining; Inventory No: CAT000880.