Contadin con Polame — plate 47
The Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia (1753, 1770, 1785, etc.), by Gaetano Zompini (1700–1778), contains sixty engravings of common, mostly poor people, peddling their trades on the streets of Venice in the mid-1700s.
Text
Per chi no vol andar da i galineri, Che ghe ne tanti vendo sto polame, De prima man, e spesso a i boteghieri.
Translation
For those who won't go to the poulterer,
As there are many, I sell this chicken,
On first hand, and often to the shopkeepers.
Notes
A contadin con polame — farmer with poultry — selling his chicken in the alleyways of Venice.
The reason why some might not want to go to the galineri — professional sellers of poultry — could be that they sold chicken reared in cages. The farmer from the countryside sold free-range chicken.
The words de prima man — on first hand — indicates that he sold chicken from his own farm, rather than reselling chickens reared by others. Thus, a higher quality product.
See Boerio (1829), entry GALINÈR, COMPRAR DE PRIMA MAN
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Bibliography
Boerio, Giuseppe. Dizionario del dialetto veneziano. Venezia : coi tipi di Andrea Santini e figlio, 1829.
Zompini, Gaetano. Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia inventate ed incise da Gaetano Zompini, Aggiuntavi una memoria di detto autore. Venezia, 1785.
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