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Serving the executioner’s bread to the executioner himself was one of the many discriminatory attitudes towards the person called the Executor of Justice.
Capital punishment has always been considered the most severe sentence, applied to those guilty of the most heinous crimes. However, judges have always limited themselves to issuing sentences, while someone else had the task of executing them. This person was the executioner.
The executioner’s bread Although necessary for sovereigns to maintain public order and administer justice, the executioner was disliked and mocked by everyone. Kings and judges did not want to deal with him. For obvious reasons, the people also isolated and marginalized him.
In Italy, the most famous executioners operated in the nineteenth century. Pietro Pantoni served the Kingdom of Sardinia, while Mastro Titta was the executioner of the Papal States.
In past centuries, capital punishment was generally accepted and considered a normal measure of repression. However, perhaps somewhat hypocritically, the people have always harbored a strong hatred towards the executioner.
The executioner’s bread and its legend
Contempt was manifested in various ways, including the habit of serving him bread upside down, with the bottom facing up. This was clearly intended to emphasize his different condition.
To put an end to this behavior and the executioner’s complaints, it seems that Amedeo VIII was even forced to issue an ordinance.
However, the bakers found an ingenious trick to comply with the ordinance and continue their discrimination. They began to produce square-shaped bread, where there was no top or bottom. In a short time, this shape became known as executioner’s bread. Today we know it as pan carré (in French, carré means square). Despite the French name, this nomenclature is practically unknown in France. In fact, across the Alps, it is called pan de mie.
It should be noted that there are no reliable historical sources indicating its Turinese origin. Some sources, for example, place the story in France under the reign of King Charles VII.