Who Brought Us the Fork?

Will the Real Byzantine Princess Responsible, Please Stand Up?

For those living in the 18th century who couldn’t afford the silver or gold of royalty, nobility or the upper classes, wood and steel and other materials were ideal for making two-tined forks with which to dine. But who was the Byzantine Princess of record to first publicly brought a small, gold, two-timed fork to her lips? Maria Argyropoulina? Maria Sforza Visconti? Princess Argila? We at Etiquipedia are having a tough time unraveling the mystery.

Two days ago I received an email from Dobrochna Giedwidz (@etiquette_now on Instagram), offering Etiquipedia the name of the Byzantine Princess who has long been credited with introducing Western Europe to the “table fork.” Grateful to be able to add the name to our Etiquette Encyclopedia, I sought to learn more about Princess Maria Argyropoulina’s use of forks. Sadly, it hasn’t been easy. The following is what I have found so far:

File Under “How it Started”

FORKS: The table fork is comparatively modern. It was first introduced in Venice by a Byzantine princess, and its use rapidly spread throughout Italy. In an inventory of the court of Charles V of France, dated 1370, there is mention of silver forks; but for some time the use of those instruments was satirized. Certain French and Scottish convents even forbade them as sinful. Their original form was two-tined; The three and four-tined varieties came later. — San Pedro News Pilot, 1921

The Genesis of the Fork 

By the way, it is just about 900 years ago since the fork made its appearance in Europe. In 995 A.D. a son of the doge, Pietro Orseolo, wedded in Venice the Byzantine Princess Argila, who produced at the wedding breakfast a silver fork and gold spoon. Then the high Venetian families followed suit, and these martyrs to fashion pricked their lips with the new instrument, though the church opposed the fashion as insult to Providence. The fork prospered, however, and in the next 360 years it had reached Florence and spread over Italy. In 1579, it had traveled as far as France, and in 1608 a traveler brought it direct to England. — London Times, 1897

The Fork

In the ancient world the fork for eating was unknown, and the well-bred sought to display as much delicacy as possible in the operation of conveying food to the mouth with the fingers. It was a thousand years ago when the first mention of the “forchetta” was made in Italian literature, and it was then spoken of as introduced into Venice by a Byzantine princess. 

It was at first not favorably received, and for two centuries came little into use, either in Italy or the rest of Europe. No mention of a fork was made in the catalogue of the table furnishings at the wedding of Maria Sforza Visconti as late as 1493. Still, the 15th century saw its use spreading in France, and the 16th in Germany. It was not until the 17th century that it was introduced in England. — Humboldt Times, 1882

Waiter There’s a Fork in My Soup

The year is 1004 and at the party celebrating her marriage to the son of the doge of Venice, Maria Argyropoulina, niece to the emperor of Byzantium, has scandalised the guests. Her crime: using a fork to eat. At the time, people generally cut up food with knives and transferred it to their mouths with their fingers. Forks did exist, but they were large, two-pronged implements used for toasting or carving meat. Occasionally, people used smaller versions to fish things out of jars. Maria, however, used one of these to put food in her mouth. 

Her wayward behaviour was immediately condemned by the clergy. One priest declared that “God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks – his fingers.” When Maria died of the plague two years later, it was seen as divine punishment for her decadence. Yet today we would look down on anyone who didn’t use a fork. Its transformation from a heretical utensil into an everyday one is a parable of technological adoption. — From an article by Tom Standage, 1843 Magazine, 2018 

 

We are still doing the research to verify that the Byzantine Princess who first started the use of the “table fork,” was indeed Princess Maria Argyropoulina. Maria Argyropoulina and the “Byzantine Princess Argila,” are one in the same, according to several sources. We also found this notation on Maria, “she was probably the ‘wife of a doge’” alluded to by the Benedictine monk and later Saint, Peter Damian, “criticizing her use of fork, perfumes and dew for bathing.”

We are guessing that Princess Maria Argyropoulina (aka Princess Maria Argila), has little or nothing to do with Maria Sforza Visconti and the lack of forks mentioned with regard to her wedding. Maybe we are wrong, or dates have been confused, or she is somehow, in some way, related to Maria Argyropoulina. But it seems rather odd to have another Byzantine Princess Maria’s name connected to the fork’s introduction to Western Europe, so we will continue to search for more on this subject. We also look forward to hearing more from Dobrochna Giedwidz in the future.— Site Editor, Maura J. Graber

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Etiquette and the History of Forks

      

An assortment of fork designs, for everything from Victorian green corn, to baked potatoes, bread, butter, ice cream and cheese.

Early Forks and Use in Europe

Thomas Coryat was an English traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age (c. 1577 – 1617). He is principally remembered for two volumes of writings he left regarding his travels, often on foot, through Europe and parts of Asia. He is credited with introducing the table fork to England, with “Furcifer” (Latin: fork-bearer, rascal) which then became one of his nicknames. The fork he described had two tines. Since then, forks have been designed with many more than 2 tines. Some forks have up to 7 or 8, depending on what one is serving.

               

Antique melon forks ~ Perfect for cantaloupes, watermelons, honeydew melons, etc. Though the fork’s early history is obscure, the fork as a kitchen and dining utensil is believed by some to have originated in the Roman Empire, or perhaps in Ancient Greece. Others believe the fork’s origins to be in Africa or the Middle East. 

The origins of personal table forks are believed to be in the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire, when, according to “1843 Magazine” at the party celebrating her marriage to the son of the doge of Venice in 1004, Byzantine Princess, Maria Argyropoulina, niece to the emperor of Byzantium, scandalized the guests by using a fork to eat. Prior to that, forks were large, two-pronged utensils used for toasting or carving foods, and smaller versions could be used to retrieve food from jars or other containers, but no one had used one to eat with publicly. Her actions were immediately condemned. One priest declared that “‘God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks – his fingers.’ When Maria died of the plague two years later, it was seen as divine punishment for her decadence.”

Use of the fork spread slowly during the first millennium CE and then spread into southern Europe during the second millennium. Forks did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century and were not commonly used to eat in North America until the 19th century. By the mid 1800s, forks were being designed for nearly every type of food, and were considered necessary to every proper home's table.

It is common knowledge (and a flattering social myth for us) that our own ancestors used to have very different -- and much cruder -- table manners from those we practice today. We have “come on,” in other words; we have “progressed.” The simplest historical novel or movie can make an exotic effect by presenting a scene in which dinner guests gnaw meat straight off bones gripped in their greasy fists, then hurl the remains into the corners of the room. These, the audience accepts without difficulty, were the manners of the past, before we became modern and civilized. (This sense of superiority does not prevent us from feeling proud, at the same time, of modern simplicity and lack of pomp. We are as capable of despising our ancestors for their tradition-bound complexity as for their rudimentary standards of propriety.) 

Forks had also to be made and sold, then produced in versions which more and more people could afford, as they slowly ceased being merely unnecessary and became the mark of civilized behavior. 

Manners have indeed changed. They were not invented on the spot, but developed into the system to which we now conform. Since manners are rituals and therefore conservative -- part of their purpose is always conservation -- they change slowly if at all, and usually in the face of long and widespread unwillingness. Even when a new way of doing things has been adopted by a powerful elite group -- using forks instead of fingers, for example -- it may take decades, even centuries, for people generally to decide to follow suit. Forks had not only to be seen in use and their advantages successfully argued; they had also to be made and sold, then produced in versions which more and more people could afford, as they slowly ceased being merely unnecessary and became the mark of civilized behaviour. After the eleventh-century date of the first extant document describing (with wonder) the sight of someone using one, the fork took eight centuries to become a utensil employed universally in the West. —From Margaret Visser’s, “The Rituals of Dinner” 

“It’s a dinglehopper!” Scuttle the seagull, answering an inquisitive mermaid Ariel, after she presents a dinner fork for his expert identification of a human item that she is unfamiliar with, in Disney’s 1989 The Little Mermaid ~ From “Let Them Eat Cake... The Strange Saga of the Mango Fork and the Unique Dining Habits of the Dutch” by Etiquipedia Site Editor, Maura Graber 

Meet Fork In Box. Fork, meet reader. “Meet Fork in Box” was the misspelled listing I found on eBay that allowed me to snag my second Dutch mango fork. Obviously a misspelling, I am sure the German Ebay seller who listed this beauty meant to list a “meat fork in box”. Before I go any further however, I should tell you a bit of my history with this odd utensil. In reality, I have never met a fork I didn’t like. My preoccupation with forks began not too long after Disney’s Ariel made her landing at the box office. Katie, my daughter, was almost three. She was enthralled with the precocious sea maiden who had red hair the color of her own. By the time the VHS tape was running continuously at home, I was starting an etiquette business for children and teens. The majority of the kids I taught were so used to fast foods, they rarely ate at a family dinner table. Showing them interesting and odd looking forks, along with other unusual utensils, was a way I found that kept kids interested when I talked of setting the table at home. I needed to do something to catch their wandering attentions, and strange utensils filled that need. 

Several Dutch mango forks ~ Many Dutch feel these forks are better suited to cake. All of these pictured are Dutch, save the fork on the far right. It was from South America. 

My husband was great at sussing out unique forks for me in the beginning. We stopped in thrift and antiques shops to find odd things for the table that were relatively inexpensive. Utensils over $10.00 seemed pricey. After all, these were props for my students to pass around and examine. Sales of very old used books on silver at the local library were how I did my research on pieces we’d found. Some were sold for only a quarter. I use them for reference still. 

Anything Victorian was popular during the 1990s. Tea rooms were sprouting up in malls, while magazines and books devoted to the subject were readily available. Over the next few years, as my collection of table silver oddities grew, my forays for the rarest of forks became more time consuming. Any weekend outing meant a side trip to a thrift shop or antiques mall. I was asked to give talks and lectures on not just my collection, but how people in America once dined with grace and forethought. At least more forethought than wondering if “... you want fries with that?”, before being handed a bag of fast food through the car window.– From various sources including the book, “Let Them Eat Cake,” by Maura J. Graber

🍽️Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia