Introduction

In a highly literary letter penned by Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) in 1537 and usually known as Il sogno del Parnaso, the poet recounts one of his dreams to a Venetian friend, Gianiacopo Leonardi. The central part of the dream takes place in a large kitchen where Aretino finds himself watching a cook tend a phoenix roasting on a spit, its rich smell permeating the room. Nearby, a group of very thin and hungry men are watching him, eyeing with envy the contented fatness of his body. Aretino, notorious gourmet ante litteram, interrupts the cook – who happens to be singing a poem by Francesco Berni (1497-1536) or Giovanni Mauro D’Arcano (1496-1536) to the beat of the turning spit – to taste a bite of the succulent meat. At this precise moment, the god Apollo makes an appearance and incites Aretino to eat. Recalling the punishment of ever-hungry Tantalus, which was quite often depicted in early modern visual representations of a glutton's Hell, the god encourages Aretino to satiate himself with no reserve on the roasting meat, right in front of the group of hungry onlookers, in order to maximize their suffering. Why should these men suffer in this infernal kitchen with its delicious smells, and who are they? They are a group of famous contemporary poets, the Vignaiuoli, at fault (according to Aretino) for having fed the Muses of Poetry with ‘cabbage, herbs, and salads’.