The origin of the fork

These days I keep my spirits up by listening to podcasts like Every Little Thing, and that's how I learned that the fork--that voluptuous utensil, as one listener called it--didn't find its place on the table until the mid- to late nineteenth century.  The fork traces its roots back to Persia and to the Byzantine Empire, but it took fashionable courtesans during the Renaissance to introduce the fork among the aristocracy in Italy and later in France.   First used mostly to eat candied fruit, the Church soon condemned its wider use as an instrument of the devil.  
Big shoutout to Every Little Thing!!!!