Antonio Latini’s masterpiece of Baroque cooking and household management was the earliest book to publish recipes using tomatoes and chilli peppers. This first complete English translation presents the text with contextual introduction and notes. <I>The Modern Steward</I> was published in Naples in 1692-94, and includes a wealth of recipes, plus discussions of the kitchen and serving staff, setting the table, menus, protocol, entertainment, wines, etc. It is the last great book of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque cooking tradition. The book will interest historians of early modern Italy, food, material culture, and the social and cultural life of the European elites, as well as connoisseurs of fine dining, and cooks.

This selection from Tomaso Costo’s Fuggilozio (The Cure for Indolence, 1596) translates entertaining, dramatic, or witty examples of the over four hundred stories and anecdotes of the original. Together, they offer an engaging window into the lively culture and society of Naples and Italy generally. Though the story-tellers are all from the city’s elite, the characters in the stories they tell run the social and professional gamut, from peasants to emperors, and the variety and brevity of the tales offers something for all readers who can smile at human foibles, silliness, and naughtiness, and admire cleverness and guile. Costo, in spite of his introductory claim that the book is meant to guide its audience to virtue and away from vice, also at times indulges in blunt innuendos and jokes that can still surprise us today.