How many times a week do you make a grocery list? They are such an important part of our regular routine. Do you ever wonder what a grocery list looked like hundreds of years ago?
Known as one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the Renaissance period, we don’t often think about what daily life might have been like for someone like Michelangelo. Born March 6, 1475 in Caprese Michelangelo, Italy, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who highly influenced the development of Western art.
Despite his popularity, he couldn’t escape the menial tasks every day life. Artists have to eat too! One of the rare papers he left behind was this grocery list he made for a servant. What makes it unusual is that he not only wrote out the list, but he also drew pictures for each item listed.
The drawings of fish, bread, two fennel soups, a herring (un aringa), anchovies, and wine (“un bocal di vino”), were actually done out of necessity because the servant asked to make the grocery run was illiterate.
The list is held at the Florence museum Casa Buonarroti, along with more of Michelangelo’s handwritten notes.
It’s a fascinating piece of history that gives us a small glimpse in to life of someone living in 15th century Italy!
