SC - Chocolate documentation?

[Decker, Terry D.]

"Corn" is a generic term for all cereals in Europe.  You seem to assume the
reference in Homer is to maize (Zea mays), also known as Indian corn.
Homer's corn was not Indian corn, but emmer, spelt and barley.  

While the Italians may have imported maize from Syria, maize originates in
the New World and was brought to the Old World by the Spanish.  It is
believed the Italians got maize from the Spanish and that it was brought to
the Middle East along with turkeys through the Venetian trade.  The Turkeys
traded the grain into Central Europe and it spread back across Europe.

An ear of corn is displayed as the ear of a fruit and vegetable figure in
Giuseppe Arcimboldo's L'Ete'.  This does not show how corn was used, but as
the other fruits and vegetables are edible, it suggests that corn was eaten
in Italy in the mid to late 15th Century.

There is an Old World species of maize, but it is limited to China and no
evidence has ever been found to show that it has been exported beyond its
natural range.

Bear
 

> Don't forget corn...I believe the Italians imported corn from 
> Syria, though I 
> can't find the reference again right now (still looking, 
> though).  Also, 
> according to the Larousse Gastronomique (though it does not 
> give a primary 
> source for this statement); "In Homer's time cooks as such 
> did not exist.  
> Female slaves ground the corn and prepared the food."  This 
> brings to memory 
> another reference which may place corn well within period, 
> though it slips my 
> memory at the moment.  I will find it and post it a.s.a.p.
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor
>