Note sulla tradizione del pesce in Molise. Un itinerario storico-geografico attraverso le carte d’archivio, secoli XVIII-XIX

Adopting a geo-historical approach through the use of heterogeneous sources, this study focuses on the features and meanings of the fish tradition in Molise. In detail, the article analyzes the spatial dynamics of the model of consumption, production and distribution of fish in a territory characterized, even between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by a complex system of exchanges between the inland areas and the coast. These exchanges produce a series of contaminations and gastronomic peculiarities. The work shows how, despite the scarce activity of fishing on the Molise coast, the consumption of fish products is quite widespread in economic centers, especially in those more vibrant at an economic and socio-cultural level. In addition to the consumption of freshwater fish, a certain quantity of sea fish characterizes the tables of the rich classes. The essay therefore shows that, over the centuries analysed, the desire to distinguish by upper classes on the one hand and the observance of fasting on the other, determine the spread of fish, even in the most inland areas of the territory. It is probably in a mixture of local and exotic products, from the land and the sea at the same time that the tradition of fish in Molise should be read.