[1] Maestro Martino was born around 1430 in Torre, a village in the Blenio Valley, then in the Duchy of Milan, today in Canton Ticino, Switzerland.
His early career probably began in northern Italy, as he is referred to variously as both Martino di Como and Martino di Milano, but it seems likely that he spent some time in Naples as many of his recipes show the influence of Spanish cuisine and with the Catalan manuscript Llibre de Sent Soví [ca], Naples having come under lasting Catalan influence after its conquest by Alfonso V of Aragon in 1442.
Platina openly acknowledges in his book that most of his recipes came from Martino whom he compared to a Greek philosopher in his ability to improvise on a culinary theme.
The recipes in this tome were highly influential during the 15th century, so much so that Bartolomeo Sacchi (known as il Platina) the humanist philosopher and papal librarian, liberally included large portions of its text into his own work on culinary art entitled De Honesta Voluptae et Valetudine.
In Martino's Libro de arte coquinaria, there are several recipes for vermicelli, which can last two or three years (doi o tre anni) when dried in the sun.