things suitable and good to eat, and all affixed with due care to the bodies of the capons.
Andrea del Sarto presented on the same occasion a temple of eight sides, resembling the Baptistery of San Giovanni in form, but raised upon columns. The pavement of this temple was an enormous dish of jelly, divided into compartments of various colours to represent mosaic; the columns, which appeared to be of porphyry, were very large and thick sausages, the capitals of the columns were made of Parmesan cheese, the cornices were of sugar-work, while the tribune was formed out of sections of Marchpane. In the centre oi the temple was a singing desk, made of cold veal, the book was formed of Lasagna,[1] the letters and musical notes being made of pepper-corns; the singers standing before the desk were roasted thrushes and other small birds placed upright, with their beaks wide open as in the act of chanting, they wore a sort of shirt resembling the tunic of the choristers, and this was made of a kind of net-work, contrived in the thinnest parts of a caul of hog’s lard; behind them stood two very fat pigeons as contra-bassi, with six ortolans, which represented the soprani, or trebles.
The dish presented by Spillo was the figure of a Tinker made from a great goose, or other bird of similar sort; and this man, so contrived out of a goose, carried with him all the tools required for the mending of a cauldron in case of need. Domenico Puligo brought a roasted pig, but so treated as to resemble a scullery maid watching a brood of chickens, and having her distaff and spindle beside her; she being there for the purpose of washing the aforesaid cauldron. Bobetta produced an anvil made out of a calf’s head, with all the requirements of the same; this was to serve for the better maintenance in order of the cauldron, and was extremely well managed, as indeed were all the contributions (at a word, and that I may not have to enumerate each viand one by one), which were presented at that supper, as well as at the many
- ↑ The Lasagna is a kind of thin paste, resembling that used for macaroni, which, being cut into slices and dried, is boiled in water, or, by my richer friend, in his good strong gravy or broth, and being thus boiled, may be eaten, to the much delectation of him, my said friend, with fresh butter and grated cheese: it may be thus eaten, I say, but rarely is so, save in the sunny land of Italy.
