List No. 097
MICHELANGELO’S SHOPPING LIST
Michelangelo
1518
Having been commissioned by Pope Leo X to design and craft the San Lorenzo facade, the Italian artist known to most as Michelangelo spent his time travelling to and from Pietrasanta to quarry marble for the ultimately unrealised project. It was during this frustrating period that he wrote a list of foods on the back of a letter dated March 18th, 1518 – it is believed by some to be a three-meal shopping list, charmingly illustrated for the benefit of his illiterate servant; others imagine it to simply be a recollection of meals gone by; on the other hand, it could of course just be a doodle from the mind of a hungry artist. We will never know for certain.
pani dua
un bochal di vino
una aringa
tortegli
una insalata
quatro pani
un bochal di tondo
un quartuccio di bruscho
un piatello di spinaci
quatro alice
tortelli
sei pani
dua minestre di finochio
una aringa
un bochal di tondo
[TRANSLATION]
two bread rolls
a jug of wine
a herring
tortelli
a salad
four bread rolls
a jug of full-bodied wine
a quarter of dry wine
a dish of spinach
four anchovies
tortelli
six bread rolls
two dishes of fennel
a herring
a jug of full-bodied wine
