—This is a guest post by Lucia Wolf, a reference specialist in the Latin American, Caribbean and European Division.

In the late 1400s, Maestro Martino, a chef from Como, in Lombardy, created the first Italian cookbook, “Libro de arte coquinaria,” or “The Art of Cooking.” The full, translated title reveals more of Martino’s background and qualifications: “Book of the art of cooking composed by the extraordinary Maestro Martino, former cook of the Most Reverend Monsignor Chamberlain and Patriarch of Aquileia.”

Martino’s recipes presented clearly written instructions on how to manipulate basic ingredients and transform them into actual dishes. Previously, recipes were transmitted orally or simply jotted down as lists of ingredients without explanations on how to use them.

Centuries later, another cook in Lombardy began recording recipes in a modest booklet, likely in service of a noblewoman. The unidentified 19th-century cook included recipes she wished to document for “Domenica,” who may have been her assistant.

Following the initial pages, the book delivers familiar local recipes handwritten and typed by various individuals and passed on from one generation of cooks to another, dating from around 1910 to 1930. The book’s only hint to its authorship is an inscription on the blue marbled cover: “Zia Annita,” or Aunt Annita.

This plain recipe book carries the secrets of a native Italian cuisine that may eventually have vanished from memory had they not been recorded and transmitted by generations of local cooks.

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