Il brodetto alla sambenedettina

Il brodetto alla sambenedettina

Title

Il brodetto alla “sambenedettina”

Author(s)

Alessandro Ameli

Targeted Cultural heritage

As tangible Cultural heritage, the story addresses the new part of San Benedetto del Tronto (city center, wharf, port) as well as the old town (tower, church of Saint Benedict).

As an intangible cultural heritage, it addresses the peculiar name of the City. The name of “San Benedetto” was given in the Middle Ages to honor the memory of an unknown local martyr, and not to the famous “Saint Benedict from Norcia, as many people seem to believe.

Location

San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy

Main character(s)

William Baschervilli (fictional)

William Baschervilli is a young Italian-American son of Italian immigrants, who is a sous-chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City in the 1970s. He knows Italian because he speaks it at home, but he does not fully understand the dialect. He is sent to San Benedetto del Tronto by his boss, the chef of the restaurant where he works, because he is Italian-American and originally from the Marche region of Italy. He cannot speak openly about his quest because he fears, on the one hand, of annoying the “local population” from whom he would like to steal the artifact, and on the other hand, of compromising his research by directing someone else, a competitor of his chef for example, to the same quest.

Secondary character(s)

Saint Benedict – martyr from the III century (historical)

The catholic hagiography describes him as a Roman soldier who converted to Christianism in the III Century A.D. His story is bond to the persecutions against Christians that were launched by the Roman emperor Diocletian in 304. These persecutions were the most severe that Christians had yet faced in the Roman Empire, and they resulted in the deaths of thousands of Christians.
Forced to deny his faith by his superiors in the military, Benedictus refused, and was thus brutally decapitated, and his head and body were thrown in a river. A few days later, dolphins brought his body on a beach near San Benedetto del Tronto, and it was magically intact. The local fishermen, who knew about the decapitation, called it a miracle and took the body on the hill, buried it in a crypt and started venerating the remains of what they now called “Sanctus Benedictus”.
This tale was contested (in the XVIII Century) by the Roman Church itself, which tried to cancel the cult of “Saint Benedict” as superstition. However, when the local clergymen protested with support from the local population, the Church re-allowed the cult of Saint Benedict.
His remains are walled in the small church of “San Benedetto martire”, in the old part of the City. The small village on the hill where the old town is was called, as it grew around the small church, “San Benedetto”.

The historicity of “Benedictus” is proven by an inscription telling (shortly) part of the story of the martyr, and by the remains (skull and bones) still conserved in the church. Both have been scientifically analyzed and dated in 2003 by the University of Lecce (Lecce Tandetron Laboratory), and the results confirmed it’s the body of a man from around the III Century A.D.

SOURCES

Vincenzo Maria Michettoni, Memoria intorno a S. Benedetto M., Ripatransone, Tipografia vescovile e Comunale Jaffei, 1846
Giovanni Guidotti, Memoria intorno a S. Benedetto M., 1973
Giuseppe Neroni, Memoria intorno a S. Benedetto M., 1982
Pietro Pompei (a cura di), S. Benedetto Martire: memoria, testimonianze, culto: patrono di San Benedetto del Tronto, 1995
Enrico Liburdi, S. Benedetto martire: storia e leggenda, San Benedetto del Tronto, Tipografia Moderna, 1953
Vincenzo Catani, San Benedetto: il martire e la sua città: nuova documentazione nel 1700. anniversario del suo martirio (304-2004), San Benedetto del Tronto, Edizioni Diocesane, 2004
Gabriele Cavezzi, San Benedetto martire: la sua chiesa, i luoghi del suo culto, 1987
Giuseppe Merlini (a cura di), Sanctus Benedictus martyr: pagine a stampa e manoscritte sul santo martire Benedetto e la sua Chiesa & inventario del Polidori del 1711, San Benedetto del Tronto, Assessorato alla cultura e turismo, 2004
Francesco Palestini, Studi sulle origini e sulla protostoria dell’odierna San Benedetto del Tronto, Youcanprint (self-published), 2016

Historical context

The story takes the span of one week in the 1970s, during which the main character will explore the City in search of “the artifact”.
The events are fictional, narrated in first-person by a fictional character making fictional encounters. However, historical figures and events narrated are based on historical sources.

The 1960-1970s economic and demographic boom of the City of San Benedetto del Tronto, which changed forever not only its urban planning, but the very societal composition: from a small community of fishermen to a crowded touristic place.
The economic and demographic boom of the City is strictly connected with Italy’s economic boom and historical changes during the same period.

MAIN SOURCES:
Quaderni tematici dell’Archivio Storico Comunale di San Benedetto del Tronto

Main character‘s quest

William was commissioned by his boss to find the lost recipe for “Brodetto alla Sambenedettina”, which an old cookbook in the Chef’s possession says it was created and preserved in the Benedictine abbey of San Benedetto del Tronto.

Conflict

The main character is between the character’s expectations about San Benedetto (finding the Abbey) and the reality of the place.

The main character, during his journey, is in constant conflict between the information he received to undertake his quest, and the reality he will encounter, made of many different characters providing him conflicting and sometimes plain false information.

Raising action

William wonders around looking for the Abbey.

In the first steps (Labyrinth alley) the journey will begin. In the Pine forest, William will encounter a janitor sending him completely off road, to the “Palazzina azzurra”. At South Pier and Fishing port, he will acquire a lot of information about the City expanding and raising in population during the 1970s, but will find no trace of any Abbey. In an alley, he will talk to an old lady making fishnets (“retara” in local dialect) who will send him even more offroad, to the Church “Our Lady of the sea”. Here, a priest will send him to the old town, up on the hill.

Climax

The climax will be at the ninth “step”, at the Old Tower, when the main character will discover that in the old town there is a church nearby but isn’t and never was an Abbey, and will start to realize his quest was in vain.

Falling action

The main character will go back home empty handed after the final step, in the Church of Saint Benedict martyr.

Long description

Resolution

Spoiler alert!

The conflict is resolved with the last pages of the main character’s diary, which will end with the skull of Saint Benedict (actually still visible in the Church) laughing at him. The reader, however, will have to figure out the solution to the riddle by going into the spot where the last short-story is narrated, i.e. that the Benedectine abbey doesn’t exist and never existed, so the old cookbook reported (as many historical resources do) false information.
The recipe for “Brodetto alla Sambenedettina” is thus a dish that doesn’t exist and never existed (it’s a pun in Italian). The “Brodetto alla Sambenedettese”, however, to which the title refers to, is a real local fish soup with a unique flavor and a very complex preparation.

Main character(s)

Name surname (historical/fictional)

Description

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