SC - Herbal infusions

[Crystal A. Isaac]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> You may be right here but the drinking of such infusions were almost if not
> entirely for medicinal purposes.  It does not surprise me that there is no
> mention of this in period cookery sourses. To research this information, IMHO,
> you would have to turn to herbals and medicinal manuals.
> 
> Ras

The following are some medieval sources for tisane. I thought tisane
meant "barley water" so perhaps if I go look again I'll find more
tisanes that are "herb water." Please remember nearly all of these are
translations perhaps the word tisance was used for convience.

What does "stampe" mean in 14th century english/context of making violet
water?

Thanks,
Crystal of the Westermark

Anthimus. De Observatio Ciborum. circa 526CE. Translated by Weber,
Shirley Howard. _Anthimus, De Observatio Ciborum: Text, Commentary and
Glossary with a Study of the Latinity. Dissertation…_. Published by E.J.
Brill Ltd., Leiden 1924.

LXIIII Of Tisane
Tisane which is made of barley, if anyone knows how to make it, is good
for well people and for those with a fever…. Diluted with warm wine, a
teaspoon of it well mixed should be sipped slowly on a empty stomach….
We usually give this to those with a fever, not thick, but diluted with
clear warm water. It is agreeable also during periods of fasting, in
Lent, to take this with hot water by all means….

Maimonides, Moses (1135-1204 CE). _Maqalah Fi Bayan Ba'D Al-A'Rad
Wa-A;-Jawab 'Anha Ma'Amar Ha-Hakra'Ah_. edited and translated by
Leibowitz, JO and Marcus, S. _Moses Maimonides on the Causes and
Symptoms (Maqalah Fi Bayan Ba'D Al-A'Rad Wa-A;-Jawab 'Anha Ma'Amar
Ha-Hakra'Ah [and] De Causis Accidentium)_ Published by University of
California Press, Berkeley, CA. 1974. ISBN 0-520-02224-6 LCCCN 71-187873

page 147
...barley kashk, prepared every day.... Its description in accordance
with the needs of our master is as follows: Take polished barley, six
months after it is harvested, forty drams; chopped seeds of fumitory,
chopped seeds of Iraqi poppy, two drams; chopped moistened white
sandalwood, one dram; nard, a fourth of a dram; dill flowers, half a
dram; olive oil from the Magrib or Syria, yellow of color and free from
bitter taste, three drams. The whole of these should be put together in
an earthen pot. Pour into this pot one thousand drams of water, and heat
it over a charcoal fire until half the water evaporates. Then pour into
it six drams of wine vinegar. Its cooking is completed when less than a
fourth of it remains, and its color appears red. Then filter it, and add
to the filtrate half a dram of salt....

Henslow, G. Rev. Professor. editor. _Medical Works of the Fourteenth
Century Together with a List of Plants Recorded in Contemporary Writing
with the Identifications_. Published by Burt Franklin, New York, NY,
1972. ISBN 0-8337-1666-2.

Page 28 MS. [A] 
If a man-ys bon ys broke. - Take violet and stampe hit with water and
drynke hit and his schal caste out the brokyn bon.

Page 46 MS. [A]
For the quinsie. - Take colymbyn and fetherouyghe and the leuys of
confery and stampe hem to-gedre and drynke the ius with stale ale.

Ratti, Oscar. and Westbrook, Adele. Translators and adaptors. _The
Medieval Health Handbook_. Orginal Italian edition, _Tacinum Sanitatis_.
Lusia Arano, editor. Publsihed by George Braziller, Inc. New York. 1976
ISBN 0-8076-0808-4

>From the Tacuinum of Liege:

106. Barley Water (Aqua Ordey) 
Nature: Cold and dry in the second degree. Optimum: That which has been
thoroughly boiled and is mild. Usefulness: For the inflamed stomach.
Dangers: It is harmful for cold intestines. Neutralization of the
dangers: With sugar. Effects: Temperate blood. It is suitable for warm
temperaments, for young people, in Summer and in Southerly regions.
(Vienna, f. 45)

_Le Menagier de Paris_. (The Goodman of Paris, c. 1395) Translated by
Janet Hinson. Reprinted in _A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance
Cookbooks: First Compiled by Duke Cariadoc of the Bow and The Duchess
Diana Alena_. Fifth Edition (1992) Volume Two, published privately. Page
M38-39 Beverages for Invalids

Sweet Tisane
Take water and boil it, then add for each sixth of a gallon of water one
good bowl of barley, and it does not (or it does not matter? - Trans) if
it (p. 238) still has its hulls, and get two parisis' worth of licorice,
item, or figs, and boil it all until the barley bubbles; then let it be
strained in two or three cloths, and put in each goblet a large amount
of rock-sugar. This barley is good to feed to poultry to fatten them.
Note that good licorice is the youngest, and when cut is a lively
greenish colour, and if it is old it is more insipid and dead, and dry.

Eberhards. _Das Kochbuch Meister Eberhards_ circa 1500 CE. Translated by
Alia Atlas. Published on-line akatlas at csbu.edu

#27 Barley swells and cools and does not feed well and hurts all those
who have the affliction, and who become cold nature or who have colic in
the body. But for hot people and those who would be smaller, it is good.
And one eats or drinks it with fennel seeds, so it is good for many
afflictions in the breast, and Avincenna says that barley water harms
the stomach which is cold. It is also very good for feverish people.
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