Salimbene di Adam’s Cronica refers to lagana cum caseo in 1284.
The phrase appears in the chronicle of Salimbene di Adam, a Franciscan friar and important medieval chronicler. His Cronica provides a brief but valuable glimpse of pasta-like food in northern Italy during the late 13th century. “Lagana” referred to a broad sheet or strip of dough, while “cum caseo” means “with cheese.” The entry is therefore an early documentary reference to a dish resembling an ancestor of lasagna.
This date is often confused with 1282, when the word lasagna appears in a Bolognese ballad preserved in the Memoriali Bolognesi. The two references are close in time but are not the same evidence: the 1282 text is an early written occurrence of the word, whereas Salimbene’s 1284 passage specifically mentions lagana served with cheese.
Neither account describes modern lasagna with tomato sauce, ragù, béchamel, or neatly layered fillings. Those features developed much later, and tomatoes were unavailable in Europe during the medieval period.