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In an fresco of the XV° century in
the Issogne Castle, a feudal
residence situated in the southern
part of Aosta Valley, the most
ancient visual evidence of the
presence of Fontina is showed. The
painting represents a stall with a
pile of cheeses, which look exacly
the same as the Fontina still
produced today.
The first reference dates back to a
document of 1270 written in latin
but the name is used as a topomyn to
identify a plot of land. The name is
afterwards used, since 1700, to call
the cheese in manuscripts, textbooks,
public deeds and inventaries. The
name can also arrive from “Fontin”
the name of a mountain pasture, or
from the name of the village “Fontinaz”
or from a family name. From that
moment on the name began to be used
in the current language to call the
popular and unique cheese.
* per approfondimenti si possono
consultare i primi sei capitoli del
libro che trovate on line.
Legend:
1.
The Castle of Issogne. Fresc of 1480
representing a stall of food
products. At the right you can see
some moulds similar to the current
Fontina ones.
2.
Reproduction taken from the document
in which in 1270 for the first time
the Vacherino cheese in named. In
the same document we find the
patronym and toponym Fontines (Peronimus
de Fontines and the fields or the
Fontines village)
3. Reproduction of a page of
the Canonic Register of Pierre
François Ballalu dating year 1717.(from
the registers of the Great San
Bernado's Hospice)
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