From the Archives and General Library of the Carmelite Order
Our archives contain correspondence between Father Luigi Laghi, who was prior general of the Carmelites from 1742 to 1756, and the subprior of Traspontina in Rome, Father Avertano Bevilacqua. This correspondence provides valuable and entertaining information on culinary and medicinal recipes popular in the 18th century, which Laghi was particularly fond of.
In one of the letters, dated February 12, 1758, Laghi writes from the convent in Forlì, in the province of Romagna-Marche, and asks Bevilacqua to send him a basket containing eighty or one hundred pounds (i.e., 35-45 kg) of macaroni, of the kind usually eaten at the Traspontina monastery, but which are “truly from Naples, and not from Rome!” [AGOC, II Rome (Tr.) 118.1.1., Bevilacqua file, Correspondence received 1958].
At the time, the term “maccheroni” was used to generically define dry durum wheat pasta, without reference to a specific shape (spaghetti, vermicelli, short pasta, hollow pasta, etc.). This product, which became typical of Mediterranean cuisine, was very successful in Bourbon Naples and was exported from the Neapolitan capital throughout pre-unification Italy. The Neapolitans themselves were called “mangiamaccheroni” (macaroni eaters), a nickname that was later extended as a stereotype to Italians who had emigrated abroad. In the 18th century, the streets of Naples were teeming with trattorias and street vendors selling pasta with tomato sauce, which was also eaten on the street as takeaway food, and local producers formed a special guild of “vermicellari” to protect their economic interests.
Father Laghi's request certainly reflects the gluttony of the former general, already famous for his passion for chocolate, but it also testifies to Naples' primacy in the production of dry pasta, especially in terms of quality.
The document is preserved in the ‘S. Maria in Traspontina’ section of the AGOC and has been catalogued in the volume Santa Maria in Traspontina. La vita di una comunità carmelitana attraverso le carte d'archivio. Inventario del fondo, edited by Jacopo De Santis, Rome, Edizioni Carmelitane (Collana Subsidia Archivi Carmelitarum), 2023.
More information about the book is available at edizionicarmelitane.org
