With Permission of "Ronnie's Specialties From Round The Globe"
The Rooster of Good Fortune
If you happen to be surfing the web one day for Italian pottery try to perform a simple search using the word Pottery, Rooster, Pitcher and Italy. Chances are good that you will find several listings for pieces that look similar to one here. There is a fascinating old legend that is attached to these pitchers.
THE LEGEND
The following story, which is essentially how the legend is told elsewhere, was taken, with permission, from ""Ronnie's Specialties From Round The Globe" http://www.ronniesspecialties.com/
“The Rooster of Good Fortune Pitcher is widely believed to bring good luck and good fortune to its owners. The Italian ceramic pitcher from Deruta has a colorful history. The story of the famous Rooster Pitcher dates back to the early Renaissance period in the Republic of Florence, Italy. In the 15th century, the Medici family was the wealthiest and most powerful family. With all of their wealth and glory, the Medici patriarch, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and his brother Giuliano, had only one rival, the Pazzi family. The Pazzi family had a thirst for power. They were determined to quench that thirst even to the point of murder, which included the assassination of their rivals.
The Medici family owned a vast amount of land where peasants from neighboring villages would come to work. As a reward for their work, the Medici’s frequently held extravagant feasts for these laborers. It was common to overindulge and to become so drunk that the revelers and all the guards would pass out and fall into a deep sleep as a result of their drunken state. These diversions were especially loved by Giuliano, a fact the Pazzi family knew well.
Using this knowledge, the Pazzi family devised a plan to have a conspirator suggest to Giuliano that a feast should be held for the perished village of Gallina. The Pazzis deviously planned to send their hired assassins to the village to wait until Giuliano and his guards fell asleep. They planned to assassinate everyone.
The feast honoring Gallina took place in the fall of 1478. Giuliano was present along with his guards, exactly as the Pazzis expected. Once the feast ended, the assassins crept into the village and proceeded through the barnyard. Unfortunately for them, their path through the barnyard woke the roosters, thus causing them to cluck hysterically. The noisy, clucking roosters woke the rest of the village. Giuliano and his guards captured the assassins and killed them.
Thankful for his luck with the roosters, Giuliano decided to hold another festival in honor of these lucky birds. He arranged for artisans to create majolica ceramic wine pitchers of these protectors and presented them to the peasants as a sign of good luck. As the years passed, it became an Italian tradition that has been dispersed throughout the world.
Today, people continue to give these good luck majolica pitchers to friends and family. Most often, this gift of Good Luck is given as a housewarming or wedding gift to protect the recipients from any danger that may come their way.”
THE FACTS
Unfortunately, the historical facts don’t seem to fit the legend. This shouldn’t stop us from enjoying the legend or the artistry of these pitchers. Like most legends there may be a kernel of truth somewhere in the tale.
The Pazzi Conspiracy has been fairly well documented in the history books. The Pazzi family were a clan of rival bankers in Florence. The family were undeniably involved in the conspiracy to replace the de Medici family but it was Pope Sixtus IV who instigated the plot.
The partially successful assassination attempt took place on April 26, 1478 during Mass at the Duomo in Florence, supposedly in front of 10, 000 onlookers. Giuliano was stabbed 19 times and died on the floor of the Church. Lorenzo received non-lethal wounds and fled to the safety of the sacristy. The crowd turned on the conspirators, which included a priest, and began killing them in a scene of mass hysteria. Jacopo Pazzi was captured in the church and tossed from one of the high windows. He survived the fall but the angry mob grabbed him and dragged him, naked, through the streets of Florence. When they had tired of this they drowned him in the Arno River.
The true story has never lost its fascination with historians. In 2008, Marcello Simonetta published his latest findings, based on an encrypted letter he discovered in the archives of the Ubaldini family. The book "The Montefeltro Conspiracy: A Renaissance Mystery Decoded", published by Doubleday, is fascinating reading.
Walter Del Pellegrino
I have always loved rooster pitchers and giving them as gifts always makes me feel as if I am helping to bring good fortune to the recipients. Thanks, Walter.