FROM MANUSCRIPT TO PRINT: THE CASE OF MAESTRO MARTINO’S LIBRO DE ARTE COQUINARIA

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on Maestro Martino’s Libro de arte coquinaria, the first culinary recipe collection declaring the name of its compiler. It aims to analyze the evolution of culinary recipe collections from manuscript to print, the steps in this evolution, and the different roles that authors, printers, and editors have played in this evolution at the time of the introduction of print. By carefully examining Maestro Martino’s Libro de arte coquinaria, in its content and in its different material instantiations – from its original manuscript form(s) to the different appropriations in printed editions –, the ultimate goal of this dissertation is to show how the study of less canonical texts – in this case culinary recipe collections – can contribute to a better understanding of the impact that the introduction of a new technology had in the ways human knowledge and cultural heritage is created, disseminated, and preserved. Focusing on culinary recipe collections, a type of text that reflects more common practical knowledge than individual creativity and aesthetic value, this dissertation will demonstrate how the transition from manuscript to print forces us to consider both content and medium as two faces of the same phenomenon of communication. Moreover, this dissertation aims to reconsider the, often times, excessive importance given to the content to the detriment of the medium used to disseminate that very content. Content and medium influence each other and hence should not be analyzed separately. By analyzing them both in their complementarity, we can reach a better understanding of both the work and the society that produced it and the society for which the work was produced. While being considered the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance in terms of culinary and gustatory taste, Maestro Martino’s Libro de arte coquinaria, in all the forms in which it has been transmitted to us, can also be used as an explanatory example of the impact the introduction of print had on the creation, dissemination, and preservation of human knowledge and cultural heritage.