Reconstruction
On the evening of 3 October 1226, the gravely ill Francis of Assisi lay near the Porziuncola, the small church on the plain below Assisi that had become a center of his movement. Franciscan tradition says that he asked a friar to write to Jacopa de’ Settesoli, a wealthy Roman widow and longtime friend. She was to hurry if she wished to find him alive and bring cloth for a burial tunic, wax for the funeral, and a familiar food she had prepared when he was ill in Rome. Before the message was dispatched, Jacopa reportedly arrived with the requested provisions.
The best evidence for this episode is not a document written on Francis’s final night but the Compilatio Assisiensis, a collection probably dating to 1246 and associated with testimony from his companions. Thomas of Celano repeated parts of the story shortly afterward. The account calls the food mortariolum and explains that Romans made it with almonds, sugar or honey, and other ingredients. Francis, weakened by illness, reportedly tasted only a little. A surviving version of the dictated letter appears in the later Actus beati Francisci, but scholars dispute that letter’s authenticity.
The food itself cannot be reconstructed securely. Its name may refer to ingredients pounded and combined in a mortar, an appropriate technique for almonds, but neither its texture nor its cooking method is recorded. It might have been a soft almond confection, a paste, or a baked sweet. Sugar was available through Mediterranean trade but remained costly; honey offered a more familiar alternative. Jacopa’s wealth and Roman household therefore matter, although the source does not say whether sugar or honey was used on this occasion.
Later Assisi tradition identifies the mortariolum with mostaccioli. Modern local versions are usually diamond-shaped biscuits containing combinations of bread dough or flour, almonds, honey, and grape must. That identification is culturally important but historically uncertain: the medieval text neither uses the word mostacciolo nor mentions must, bread dough, a diamond shape, or baking. Today’s biscuit is best understood as a commemorative interpretation rather than a documented unchanged recipe.
The episode is significant because it preserves domestic affection within a saint’s formal biography. Food functions here not as luxury or spectacle but as remembered care exchanged between friends. In present-day Assisi, the annual Transitus on 3 October commemorates Francis’s passage from life to death, and local devotional culture continues to connect mostaccioli with Jacopa’s final gift. The biscuit thus carries two histories: a securely attested medieval request for an almond sweet and a later culinary tradition that gave that otherwise indistinct mortariolum a recognizable form.
Nutrition
| Nutrient | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 380–440 kcal | estimated |
| Protein | 8–12 g | estimated |
| Fat | 10–18 g | estimated |
| Carbohydrate | 58–70 g | estimated |
| Fibre | 3–6 g | estimated |
| Glycaemic index | 45–60 | estimated |
| Glycaemic load | 24–39 | estimated |
| Micronutrients | ||
| vitamin E | 4–8 mg | estimated |
| magnesium | 60–100 mg | estimated |
| iron | 1.2–2.2 mg | estimated |
| manganese | 0.7–1.4 mg | estimated |
Typical serving: one small-to-medium diamond-shaped biscuit, approximately 30g
Historical context
At this time, Italy was a mosaic of communes, papal territories, and imperial interests rather than a unified state. Assisi was a fortified Umbrian hill commune, while Frederick II ruled as Holy Roman emperor and Honorius III was pope. Only three years earlier, on November 29, 1223, Honorius had formally confirmed the Franciscan Rule. The movement was already spreading beyond central Italy through itinerant friars. Mediterranean commerce carried almonds, spices, and costly cane sugar between Islamic, Byzantine, and Latin Christian regions, although honey remained the more accessible western European sweetener. Francis was canonized less than two years after his death, on July 16, 1228.
Evidence
Written sources
ModerateThe Jacopa and mortariolum episode appears in Franciscan narratives beginning about twenty years after Francis’s death, notably the Compilatio Assisiensis, and was subsequently repeated by Thomas of Celano. These are substantial but hagiographic rather than contemporary administrative records.
Recipe evidence
LimitedThe medieval account identifies almonds and either sugar or honey, plus unspecified other ingredients, but gives no quantities, texture, shaping, cooking method, or complete recipe.
Food identification
LimitedMortariolum is directly attested, but its identification with modern mostaccioli is a later Assisi tradition. The medieval source does not mention grape must, bread dough, diamond shapes, or the name mostaccioli.
Dating
StrongFrancis’s death at the Porziuncola on October 3, 1226 is securely established. The precise details of Jacopa’s arrival are preserved in later narrative testimony.
Preparation method
InterpretivePounding almonds in a mortar is a plausible inference from the name mortariolum and medieval confectionery practice, but it is not explicitly described in the narrative.
Geographic attribution
ModerateThe source calls mortariolum a Roman food and associates its preparation with Jacopa, a Roman noblewoman; the final encounter is placed at the Porziuncola near Assisi.
Historical interpretation
ProbableInterpreting the requested sweet as an expression of memory, friendship, and comfort is consistent with the narrative, but these emotional meanings remain historical interpretation rather than directly recorded explanation.
Visual reconstruction
LimitedAny depiction of the 1226 food as a modern diamond-shaped biscuit is a devotional or culinary reconstruction, not an image supported by the medieval account.
Sources
- 1.Anonymous Franciscan companions; edited by Marino Bigaroni (1992). Compilatio Assisiensis dagli scritti di fra Leone e Compagni su S. Francesco d’Assisi. Dal Ms. 1046 di Perugia (1246). Edizioni Porziuncola.Historical primary source
- 2.Thomas of Celano (1249). Tractatus de miraculis B. Francisci. Analecta Franciscana, volume 10, pp. 269-331.Historical primary source
- 3.Alfonso Marini (2018). Settesoli, Jacopa, beata. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 92, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/beata-settesoli-jacModern synthesis
- 4.Comune di Assisi tourism portal (n.d.). Local products: Mostaccioli. Visit Assisi. www.visit-assisi.it/en/local-products/Modern synthesis
- 5.Petros Bouras-Vallianatos (2021). Cross-cultural Transfer of Medical Knowledge in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Introduction and Dissemination of Sugar-based Potions from the Islamic World to Byzantium. Speculum 96(4): 963-1008. doi:10.1086/715838Scientific literature
- 6.U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (2025). FoodData Central: Foundation Foods. USDA FoodData Central. fdc.nal.usda.gov/Modern synthesis
- 7.University of Sydney Glycemic Index Research Service (n.d.). International Glycemic Index Database. University of Sydney. glycemicindex.com/gi-search/Scientific literature
Limitations
- moderatetitle
The medieval sources call the food mortariolum, not mostaccioli. Identifying it as a diamond-shaped mostacciolo is a later Assisi tradition and should not be treated as a securely documented medieval name or form.
- moderatedescription
Only almonds with sugar or honey and unspecified other ingredients are attested for mortariolum. Bread dough, grape must, diamond shaping, and baking describe modern local mostaccioli and cannot be projected securely onto the 1226 food.
- minorhistorical attribution
The principal Jacopa narrative dates to about 1246, roughly twenty years after the event. The surviving text of Francis’s purported dictated letter appears in a later source and is of disputed authenticity.
