Forty, a poem, and ancient garlic cheese spread

This is wonderful.

I’ve written of garum in the past.  It’s modern near equivalent is colatura.

I have also – is this a surprise? – written about moretum and the Virgilian poem!

Moretum is a spread made from cheese, herbs and garlic.  The post was called, for those who get this, “Spem in allium“.

Meanwhile, the other Spem in alium, the 40 voice – yes 40 – is hard to perform, because, well… 40, right?

But today is Ascension THURSDAY, and we are 40 days from Easter, this seemed like a good thing to add to this post.  Thomas Tallis.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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5 Comments

  1. Ms. M-S says:

    Thanks, Fr. Z! Just the thing for bread baked with only captured yeast in these days of no available commercial yeast. On top of that, the Tallis! Forty voices. I wonder how many voices there were in the angel choir at the Ascension?

  2. CasaSanBruno says:

    Good old Tallis. He never renounced his Catholic Faith when most around him were falling. Alas, in our archdiocese, for pastoral reasons, our Lord ascended to Heaven 43 days after his resurrection.

  3. Joe in Canada says:

    CasaSanBruno – I suspect Father has moved Ascension-Thursday-Sunday to Thursday

  4. I heard Spem in alium for the first time some years ago, in a live performance at the Kennedy Center. The choristers were positioned on all four sides of the upper balcony.No recording can do it justice.

  5. Filiolus says:

    The first line is “Spem in alium nunquam habui” –

    Spem in alium nunquam habui
    Praeter in te, Deus Israel
    Qui irasceris et propitius eris
    et omnia peccata hominum
    in tribulatione dimittis
    Domine Deus
    Creator caeli et terrae
    respice humilitatem nostram

    But for your post “Spem in allium”, “nu(m)quam habui” doesn’t fit! So I took the liberty of rewriting it for allium.

    Spem in allium semper habeo,
    Praesertim in te, allium moreti
    Qui opprimeris ut propitius fueris
    et omnes cenas hominibus
    iucundiores feceris
    Condimentum notum
    omnibus partibus terrae
    Seda suaviter ieiunia

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