The Italian magazine 'Food & Wine' in it's current issue, traces the use of the One tined Fork in Imperial Rome, the introduction of the Two tined Fork, from the Eastern Roman Empire, its further development, and its use in Italy.

The Fork seems so obvious and simple, and yet for the longest time the Fork was first considered a "diabolical" instrument, then an unnecessary affectation!

The Fork was ultimately introduced to a reluctant Protestant Europe, that abhorred anything, coming from Italy, that would smell of "papal".

The experience of Paolo Caliari's painting "The Last Supper", and how it became "Supper at Levi's house" is not only worth a smile, but a cautionary note to those who might give too much credence to Historians reliance on Artist's depictions.

Especially, after reading Tiziano Vecellio's justification's for taking liberties w History.

(In Summarized Translation and Comments by Dr. Giorgio Iraci [G.I.]
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FROM FINGERS TO FORK

It would be called, nowadays, "finger food" and Lawrence of Arabia tells in his memories how long and difficult it was for him to learn from the Arabs the fast and elegant movement to pick up and bring to the mouth a morcel of food from a common plate.

The use of a "form" of knives and spoons probably dates back to the cavemen's age:  a shell, or a bent leaf, to scoop up soft food; a sharpened slab of flint stone to cut meat.

In Roma (Imperial age) they were surely in use. The food was cut into small pieces by slaves. The Romans were familiar with the spoon and had devised a special  ("cochlear") one for snails and shellfish, equipped with a thin hook at the tip of the handle for extracting the pulp. As to forks, there were  at first single bars of metal, with one lance-shaped tip.

The Byzantines of the Eastern Roman Empire developed, to hold the food better and keep it from falling, a two-pronged utensil.. Instruments like these are shown in the illuminations of codes dating from the VI to the IX C.

In the year 1,000, the son of the Orseolo Doge of Venezia brought back as his bride Maria, daughter of Cristiano X, emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Her dowry, described as unbelievably rich, included strange objects (made of gold) she used to bring the food to her mouth, much to the amazement of the Venetians, who thought it was the devil's invention (the princess, probably, used them not to touch, with her dainty fingers, food that had been cut up by the slaves' impure hands).

At the times of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, the will of a priest, dated October 5, 1298,. bequeaths, with knives and spoons, three "forcellas argenteas" (silver forks). Bonvesin della Riva had already dictated the rules of good table manners. The silver fork was standard equipment (at least, from Boccaccio's descriptions in his "novelle" [short stories]) at the tables of the wealthier families in Firenze.

At the elegant court (the "Stupor Mundi") of Federico II they had, at a certain moment, to cope with the problem of how to eat spaghetti.

But, in the noisy and festive Napoli of Baroque times, visitors remained amazed at  the swiftness of the "three-finger" (thumb, fore- and middle finger) movement with which the Neapolitan "lazzarone" would roll up around them a mouthful of spaghetti, raise it towards the seller who, just as rapidly, would sprinkle it with cheese and - down into one's mouth.

And, the use of the three fingers to pick food up remained, the more commonly accepted way.

In the 1500's Paolo Caliari "il Veronese" (1528-1588) made a painting that was supposed to have, as its subject, the Last Supper (it's now on display at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venezia). One of its details shows a man, between two columns, a "pirone" (that was, in Venezia, the name for the fork. But the pironi were looked upon with suspicion by the religious authorities - and those were the days of the Inquisition. Furthermore, the painting's scene showed armed people, jesters and luxuriously-dressed personages - hardly reconcilable with its supposedly religious subject.

The painter was brought to trial with the Inquisition.. The other famous Venetian painter, Tiziano Vecellio (1488-1576) is quoted in the article as having said "we painters take liberties as poets and crazy people do". When asked about the presence in the painting of jesters, men armed with halbards, etc., the answer was "I do believe that there were at the Last Supper only Christ and his Apostles - but if space is still available on the expanse of canvas, I'll fill it up according to my inventive power".

There was a conviction, but - fortunately - the only penalty was to change the painting's title to "Supper at Levi's house" (GI Note: notice that Levi was a typically Jewish name at that time and in Italy, too - the Inquisition found a way of attributing to a Jewish house a common dinner and the use of a "diabolical" instrument).

With time, the individual knife found its place on well-to-do tables, along with the fork and spoon, but was considered  abroad (even at royal courts) as a sign of Italian snobbery and affectation. Within Italy, too, people who continued in the more common use of the three fingers used derision towards those who would use cutlery.

According to the diaries of travellers, this use became common in the Italian middle-class with the 1600's., and the fashion spread to France, England and Germany, ill seen by the Protestants who abhorred anything that, coming from Italy, would smell of "papal" ( GI Note: reciprocal bigotry, extended from religion to common uses...)

During the century of the Enlightenment (XVIII) and the following one, whoever thought to be still allowed the use of the fingers would see a fork delicately and unobtrusively laid by his place at the table.

The use of the fork apparently made a fast way through commoners, too: a French traveller, taking his grand tour down south in the XIX C., describes a highway bandit from whose leather cross-belt he saw hanging "a scimitar, a dagger and a fork".
[RAA Note: A well mannered Highwayman :)]