Register of the meat purchased for the needs of the noble house of the Sapienza Nova (1635-1637)

ASUPg, Sapienza Nuova, Libri di Cucina (Kitchen registries), registro n.9

Cardboard-bound paper register

The three accounting books on display are part of the “Kitchen registries” collection (1620-1795), and show entries regarding the provision of food to the boarders of the Collegio of la Sapienza Nuova (Rector, students, workers). The books were kept in the areas devoted to the conservation of edibles (that is the kitchen, the pantry or the suppliers’ shops). Some of the books in this collection deal with a single ingredient (either wine, bread, or meat) and, among these, only two are exclusively dedicated to meat (1631-33 and 1635-37), showing the purchase of meat to meet the boarders’ needs.

In particular, the document on display shows the purchase of meat for a single year (1635-36): “Meister Francesco, cook of the Alma Casa has to receive the amount of money here below indicated for the herewith specified meat that has been purchased from Vincenzo, nicknamed Schianta Macellaro”.

It is worth mentioning that the types of meat indicated in the register are limited to veal, mutton and lamb. Other kinds of meat, such as chicken and capon (mentioned in other registries of the time), are not shown, probably because they were not purchased but directly bred and raised, as demonstrated by several entries relating to the purchase of animal feed in the revenues/expenditures registries.

The great care shown by the person in charge of food provisions, the calculations often made over and over again as well as the final revisions carried out at the end of the month by the Rector himself are a proof of the attention and the parsimony with which the Collegio was managed in this period of great crisis and famine (in 1635, probably due the scarcity of resources, the number of students admitted to the Collegio drastically dropped from 42 to only 22).

Wine consumption 1643

Bread consumption 1646-1647

ASUPg, Sapienza Nuova, Libri di Cucina (Kitchen registries), registri n. 15 and 20

Cardboard-bound paper accounting books

In the bread and wine accounting books the quantities allotted to students, officials and the Rector and those for the workers were written on opposite sides of the page.

In the bread accounting books the quantity of bread used in the preparation of soups is also minutely detailed.