Il cibo in memoria. Un secolo dopo Das Grab als Tisch di Mathias Murko

Abstract

The presentation reports on a work developed around a series of archival documents (Friuli, 15th-18th centuries: wills, obituaries, registers of brotherhoods, in particular) containing legacies that obliged the heirs to disitribute food to poor members or each family of the community on the occasion of their funerals, for anniversaries or on ritual occasions throughout the year related to the cult of the dead (Spring Rogations, Four Tempora, Good Friday, All Saints and Commemoration of the Dead). The historical documentation guarantees a long-term observation (duration, durability, transformations) concerning the food traditions also observed by folklorists from the second half of the nineteenth century in Friuli, with the Friulian, Venetian, Slovenian, Germanic, and Jewish communities, referring to the funeral rites. During the initial phase of the research, some twenty years ago, Milko Matičetov introduced me to the fundamental essay "Das Grab als Tisch", published in 1910 by Mathias Murko on Wörter und Sachen. Some of the author's comparative and interpretative cues will be applied to the historical, linguistic and ethnographic documentation of the multilingual community in the eastern Alps.