Ice cream has a complicated but fascinating history.

Its origins are confusing, with different characters, times and places. We don't know precisely who invented ice cream the way we know it today: it's a "movie scene" with many "actors" playing, and all of them are italian. We can focus our attention on three competitors: Ruggeri and Buontalenti, both from Florence, and a Sicilian, Procopio dei Coltelli.

On the other hand, we know for sure that refrigerating sweet drinks - fruit juices - was common in ancient times for many populations and for all social classes, especially in the Middle East.

According to the Bible we can go back to Isaac offering some goat milk mixed with snow to Abraham and adding: "EAT AND DRINK, the sun is burning so you can cool down". We can therefore suppose it was frozen milk, a sort of sherbet, or else he would just have said "DRINK". Can we affirm Abraham was the first man ever tasting an ice cream? Perhaps he was.
Though it is just an interpretation, some translators of the Ancient Scriptures think that during harvest time in old Palestine, masters would give pieces of snow to their servants. At that time snow was picked up, compressed and stored in special buildings during the winter months so that it could last till summertime. Even King Solomon is thought to have used it a lot.
Even when snow was not available men could make ice. They had already discovered the right procedure: they would boil up water and would then take it to extremely cold underground rooms where the steam would freeze up on the rocks.
In Eastern countries and in Egypt the pharaoh's guests were offered silver cups split into two halves, one for snow and the other for fruit juice,
In ancient Rome the first recipe for an ice cream was invented by general Quinto Fabio Massimo, and soon became very popular.
The snow supplies for Rome used to come from Mountain Terminillo but also via ship from Etna and Vesuvio, two huge reservoirs which turned out to be a very rich commerce for centuries and supplied both the popular THERMOPOLIA - spread out along the roads and always crowded with thirsty wayfarers - and the imperial palaces at the same time.

Emperor Nero is said to have eaten too much snow, just like Elogabalo, whose court was famous for the abundancy of frozen drinks.

The fall of the Roman Empire and the following Middle Ages brought about the partial or total loss of all the refined habits, which had been so far very common for many populations. Even ice creams disappeared but not in the eastern countries where the making of frozen drinks kept improving.

A disciple of Muhammad's is said to have invented a way to freeze fruit juices by placing them into containers, which were then placed into other containers full of chopped ice. This ice cream making system was used throughout the centuries, with minor changes and improvements, till refrigerators were invented.
At that time ice cream was brought over Europe again from the Eastern Countries.
Arabs re-introduced this tradition which started again from Sicily and was called SORBETTO originating from the arab word SCHERBET (sweet snow) or - according to other interpretations - from the word SCHARBER (to sip) and deriving from the turkish term CHORBET, sherbet.

Ice cream grew much lighter and more refined through the Arabian inventions: sugar and new fruit juices, mainly citrus fruit, were added. The Arabian creativity reached its top in Sicily, so rich in fruit and snow, and started a new trend.
In Northern lands the crusaders returning from the Holy Land would bring back precious recipes and "ice cream" came back as a new discovery for the rich people's banquets.
Marco Polo brought it back to Venice and had new ideas, such as replacing snow with a mixture of water and saltpetre.

But the real diffusion of ice cream started from Sicily, through the ice cream makers who had learned their art from the Moslims adding a touch of their fantasy to it and spreading it about to Naples, Florence and then Milano, Venice and up to France, Germany and England while in Spain sherbet was known through the commercial links between Portugal and the Eastern Countries.

16th century. The Renaissance. Here are the names of those who made the history of italian ice cream.
Ruggeri, a chicken farmer, occasionally a cook, unexpectedly entered the contest "the most amazing food ever seen before", sponsored by the Medici's for all the most famous cooks in Tuscany.
Ruggeri, quite embarassed, shyly asked to be admitted. He would make a frozen dessert from almost forgotten recipes adding a bit of his creativity. The jury members were conquered by his "sorbetto" They said "we have never tasted something so delicious before". So the winner became famous and sought after all over the country.
Caterina De' Medici, who was about to marry Henry, Duke of Orléans and future king of France, expressly wished to take Ruggeri over to France with all her cooks and confectioners. She liked to say he was the only Italian who could humiliate the French at least in the art of cuisine.
At that time Ruggeri was the most wanted cook for any important feast, he was taken by Caterina's soldiers and directly embarked on the ship to France.
In Marseille, during the wedding banquet, French people came to know his ice cream, his recipe for "ice made with sweet and flavored water".
It was 1533 and he was asked to set his creativity free to invent new recipes to surprise the royal banquets guests. He thus started to give different shapes to ice cream, creating real miniature monuments with his yet secret recipe.
Caterina refused any gift or sum of money offered in exchange of her treasured Ruggeri but fame was like hell for him. He was hated and boycotted by all the cooks in Paris and one night he was even assaulted, robbed and beaten.
He then sealed his own recipe in an envelope which he sent to Caterina adding the following farewell note: "with your permission I want to go back to my chickens, hoping people will finally leave me alone. I hope they will forget me and will just be pleased to enjoy my ice cream". Caterina de Medici's cooks were therefore lucky enough to get an ice cream recipe to make widespread all over France.

Still during the 16th century in Florence, Bernardo Buontalenti, a famous archictect, a painter and a sculptor, loved cooking as a hobby and he consequently discovered ice cream. The right moment came when he was charged to organize luxurious banquets to surprise and amaze italian and foreign guests. Banquets were obviously very important and Buontalenti introduced his "fabulous frozen desserts", a result of his personal invention and by far superior to what had been produced till then. They were made with zabaglione and fruit, they became a real craze and his recipes spread out the art of ice cream making from Florence to all over Europe and beyond.

The real ice cream making business started with Procopio dei Coltelli. He was maybe from Palermo, but more likely from Acitrezza, a fishermen village north of Catania. Procopio used an invention made by his grandfather Francesco, a fisherman who spent his leisure time working on an icecream machine which could improve the standard quality reached at that time. One day he finally made it but, since he was too old, he left his invention to his grandson. Later on Procopio, who had begun to feel tired of his fisherman's life, started studying on his machine, he made many attempts and experiments and he finally decided to set off to seek his fortune.

He arrived in Paris after many failures and further improvements.
He discovered how he could use sugar instead of honey and how he could mix salt with ice to make it last longer, thus improving dramatically the quality of ice cream, and he was welcomed by Parisians as a brilliant inventor.

He opened a shop in 1686, called Cafè Procope. Since he was so successful he soon moved to a new and larger place (nowadays in Rue de l'Ancienne Comédie) right in front of La comedie Fançaise.
His Café specialities were "frozen waters" (granita), fruit ice creams, anisette flowers, cinnamon flowers, frangipane (a cream sauce), lemon juice ice cream, orange juice ice cream, strawberry sherbet. Procopio was granted a special licence by Lewis 14th, which gave him the exclusive rights for the production of those desserts.
This place became one of the most popular meeting points all over France. Voltaire, Napoleon, George Sand, Balzac, Victor Hugo used to go to the cafè, which is still a boast for Paris.

So the "industrial" diffusion of icecream started from Sicily. In 1750 Patrick Brydone, a scottish nobleman, wrote: "Etna provides snow and ice not only to Sicily but to Malta and to a major part of Italy as well, thus creating a very consistent commerce.
In these sunburned places even farmers can enjoy good ice creams during the summer heats and in every feast organized by the local gentry icecream is a primary feature. Sicilians say that a snow shortage would be more painful than a corn or wine shortage. You can often hear that this island could no longer be inhabited without the snow from Etna, since now people can't do without what is actually a luxury good".

Summary taken from
"scienza e tecnologia del gelato artigianale" (science and technology of ice cream making) by Luca Caviezel
Chiriotti Editore