📜 History · 1661
Mortadella: the sausage Bologna protected in 1661
How a Roman-era pork sausage became one of the world's first food products with written production rules.
Mortadella is older than Bologna's famous towers. A Roman funerary stone from the 1st century AD, now in Bologna's Museo Civico Archeologico, shows a man with a herd of pigs alongside a mortar and pestle. Historians often read it as an early nod to finely pounded pork. One theory traces the name to the Latin 'mortarium' (mortar). Another points to 'farcimen myrtatum', a Roman sausage flavoured with myrtle berries.
The decisive date is 24 October 1661. That day Cardinal Girolamo Farnese, the papal legate in Bologna, issued a 'bando' (public decree) setting out how mortadella had to be made. Only pork was allowed, and the sausage had to carry the seal of the city's guild of salumi makers, the Salaroli. Food historians see the decree as a forerunner of today's European IGP and DOP protection rules.
Today the Consortium for Mortadella Bologna IGP looks after the recipe. Every 24 October Bologna celebrates Mortadella Day, which in 2026 marked 365 years since the decree. In the Quadrilatero market streets you can still buy it from salumerie that carry on the Salaroli tradition.
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