A Food Historian's Treasure

Academia Barilla's Gastronomic Library offers gastronomic treatises from the 16th century, menus, and recipes for banquets of late renaissance courts.  One could sit and read original recipes from some of the greatest chefs in history and 19th century volumes that revolutionized the perception of gastronomy and food.  These are just a few that are among the additional 6750 priceless archival treasures that comprise the core of the Gastronomic Library of Academia Barilla. 

The library offers much more than recipe books.  Its volumes illuminate links between the kitchen and politics, cuisine and culture, and even between religion and eating.  Others describe the role of cuisine in artists' and writers' lives and works.

You may find examples of these historic works on Parma's National Library System.  There, you can select Biblioteca Gastronomica Academia Barilla under the "library" option. 

Housed within the facility of Academia Barilla in Parma, our Gastronomic Library provides more than 7,500 volumes of unparalleled resources for professional chefs in search of inspiration and for gastronomy enthusiasts curious about the history of food culture in Italy and abroad.

Academia Barilla's Gastronomic Library speaks eloquently about the history of Italian cuisine.  It begins as early as Ancient Rome, where ethnic cuisines, ranging from Greek and Phoenician to Assyrian and Babylonian, become the influence of the gastronomic experiences in the capital of the Roman Empire.  In the early Christian and medieval era, the library collection testifies that monastic scribes carefully recorded local peasant gastronomic traditions. 

In the Renaissance period, the aristocratic courts became the guardian of Italian regional cuisines, and it is in this period that emerged for the first time an interest in the formal aspect of dining, such as the use of and types of silverware and the sequence of courses.  During the Enlightenment period, food began to become an object of study, not only from the academic point of view but also from the hedonistic.

Finally, during the 19th and 20th centuries, food assumed the role of symbolizing the way a person expresses and interprets his/her daily life.

Click here to explore the Academia Barilla Culinary Center and its Gastronomic Library.

For more information on how you can discover Parma, the land, the culture and regional cuisine, please contact Academia Barilla at academia@barilla-usa.com or toll free (866)772-2233.