Sul Modo Pratico de Fabbricare il Formaggio Grasso detto Stracchino di Gorgonzóla

8vo. 215 x 135 mm., [8 ½ x 5 ¼ inches].  16 pp.  Original buff colored printed wrappers, stitched as issued; corners dog eared light foxing throughout the text.  This copy shows signs of use, but sound and not unattractive.

Rare publication on the practical  method of making Gorgonzola Cheese called, “Stracchino di Gorgonzola”.  The name derives from the word for  "tired" “stracche” in the Milanese dialect, which refers to the exhausted condition of the cows after their migration from the hills of Bergamo to the plains of Milan and Lodi.   The milk that was produced after the arrival of the herd was sold in the town of Gorgonzola, outside of Milan which was a meeting point for the routes of the "bergamine" “the herds” and purchased and used by the local inhabitants to make a rich cheese.

Luigi Cattaneo and his brother Antonio were agricultural economists who specialized in the study of milk and the production of cheese.  Luigi was an author of a scientific work in 1834 on the operations of the dairy farm, with descriptions of the chemistry which produced different cheeses of varying quality and taste.  He was member of the Royal Institute of Science, Literature and Art for the provinces of Lombardy and the Veneto and wrote essays for the Milanese publication Politecnico.  Antonio was a professor of rural economy and member of numerous local agricultural associations and the author of a 480-page book on the properties of milk and milk production.

Rare:  OCLC cites copies at the Universities of Illinois and Wisconsin only and it is not cited in NUC, though other titles by Cattaneo are mentioned, each cited in only one copy.    

Vittorio Niccoli.  Saggio Storico e Bibliografico dell’Agricultura Italiana,  p.566.  Maria Paleria Henssler.  Bibiografia Latino-Italiana di Gastronomia, I, p. 172.  Although this title on Gorganzola cheese is not cited by Westbury, other works by Antonio and Luigi are listed.  See Lord Westbury.  Handlist of Italian Cookery Books, p. 43.  (1430)