From the Living Museum
Annurca
- Origin
- Campania region of Italy; on record since at least 1583, and traditionally linked to Roman times
- Era
- Ancient / centuries old
- Type / use
- Dessert · Fresh eating
History & Stories
Small-to-medium, distinctly flattened fruit whose deep red skin develops a characteristic waxy, almost lacquered sheen in storage. The flesh is crisp, aromatic, and carries a spicy-vinous flavor unlike most Northern European apples. Unique for its extreme storability (improves for months) and its deep cultural roots in southern Italian tradition — still celebrated today as ‘mela Annurca’.
Folklore & Name
Ancient Campanian variety. The name grew out of the Renaissance "Orcole" (Della Porta, 1583) through forms like anorcola and annorcola, and first appears as "Annurca" in 1876; tradition links it to Pliny's "Mala Orcula" from near Pozzuoli 1. Deeply embedded in southern Italian fruit culture and still celebrated today.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Annurca is the traditional apple of Campania, in southern Italy, and is now protected as Melannurca Campana IGP 1. The growers' consortium traces its name through the Renaissance. In his Pomarium (1583), the Neapolitan scholar Giovan Battista Della Porta wrote of apples from Pozzuoli that the Roman writers Varro, Columella and Macrobius had called "orbiculate"; they were red-skinned and sweet, and were commonly called "Orcole" 1. Forms such as anorcola and annorcola followed, and the name "Annurca" first appears officially in 1876, in G.A. Pasquale's Manuale di Arboricoltura 1. The UK National Fruit Collection received its trees from Italy in 1973 2.
The competing accounts
- Pliny the Elder's "Mala Orcula" (tradition, as reported by the Consorzio 1): the apple is said to be the one Pliny named after Orcus, the underworld, whose entrance was placed at Lake Avernus near Pozzuoli.
- Consorzio Melannurca Campana IGP 1: the Pliny link was first proposed by G.B. Della Porta in 1583. The documented line runs from Della Porta's "Orcole" through anorcola and annorcola to "Annurca," first printed in 1876.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): a Campanian apple known under some form of this name since at least 1583. The Roman connection is Della Porta's hypothesis, so it is a tradition, not proof of Roman age.
What we think: stories & traditions
Pliny's "Mala Orcula" (tradition). A popular story says Pliny the Elder named the apple "Mala Orcula" because it grew near Lake Avernus at Pozzuoli, the legendary entrance to the underworld, Orcus 1. That link was Della Porta's suggestion, made some 1,500 years after Pliny 1. It may be right, but it is a Renaissance theory, not a Roman record.
Sources
- Consorzio di Tutela Melannurca Campana IGP, "Storia e origine." www.melannurca.it/prodotto/storia-e-origine
- UK National Fruit Collection, "Annurca." www.nationalfruitcollection.org.uk/full2.php?id=180&fruit=apple
Curious about Annurca?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.