OUR STORY
In Italy, in the years between 1300 and 1530, there occurred a rebirth of the classicism of Ancient Greece and Rome. It was a time when man looked toward his own energies and abilities. It was an age of humanism. This was a concerted effort to secure the thought and style of past cultures and to reconcile them with the present.
Italian city life was much more advanced than anywhere in Europe. The rulers of the city-states offered support, recognition and for a time, security for artists to fulfill their potential. The architecture of Brunelleschi and the sculptures of Donatello and Ghiberti, the literature of Tasso and Castiglioni and the paintings of Raphael were only a few among legions of greatness.
It was at this time Michaelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel and created his David and Pieta. Later, Leonardo DaVinci painted the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and found time for his many inventions. Everywhere growth was evident. It was an age of discovery and tremendous cultural growth.
In the second half of the fifteenth century, during the height of the influence of the famous Medici family, the trend toward excellence in all things was accelerated.
The exceptional and excellence became the goals of the times and synonymous with these words was the name Bibo, Maximillion Bibo.
Max Bibo was the son of an Italian Contradore (mercenary Soldier) and a Jewish poetess mother. At a very early age, he came under the influence and protection of Lorenzo DiMedici. Max Bibo became, in the area of foods and food preparation, the epitome of the age; he was the very best. Food, its appearance, texture, and taste were held in lofty regard by the Medici family. “The best of the very best” was set on their tables. The selection and purveying of premier foodstuff became the responsibility of Max Bibos.
It became a saying throughout the great region of Tuscany to signal the exceptional and the excellent ‘e “Bibo”; “it is Bibo”. It is in the tradition of Max Bibo that we conduct business.
Note: Legends abound about Max Bibo. One was that he was sentenced to hang for throttling a dairyman who tried to pass on cheese that was not aged properly. Another was that he was banished from Florence for beating a farmer who presented him with overripe figs.
