SC - Re: cordials

[Daniel W Stratton]

  One of the Tunners Guild members, Ld. Nigel FitzMaurice, has done 
  some really interesting research on the history and development of 
  Cordials in the Middle Ages; his work is: 
  Precious Waters - A miscellany of early cordials by Forester Nigel
FitzMaurice 
  Mundanely Bruce Gordon, his manuscript is available online at 
  http://web.raex.com/~obsidian/precwat.html 
  A few excerpts relating to his cordial research follow: 
    "...a number of recipes are transcribed from various common books
dating
  from the late 14th century. 
  ... all taken from four different manuscripts (Harleian 2378, the
Johnstone
  Manuscript, Sloane 521, and Sloane 2584). 
  Each of these works are privately produced formularies describing a
wide
  variety of medicinal preparations, presenting several hundred leaves
each
  both in Latin and Middle English. 
  ...They were selected as clear examples of medicines on their way to 
                   becoming liqueurs." 

  The (secondary) source for the Manuscripts: 
  Henslow, G. Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century. Burt Franklin, 
  N.Y., N.Y. 1972 (reprint  of the 1899 edn.). This work is a compilation

  of four Mediaeval formulary manuscripts  (Johnstone Mss., Harl. 2378, 
  Sloane 2584, and Sloane 521). Each is an extract, being those  recipes 
  which were written in English, rather than Latin or French. Original 
  spelling,  grammar, and syntax is preserved throughout. An appendix, 
  listing all the botanics  mentioned in the works together with 
  supplementary information, is included. 
  .................................. 
  Commentary that Cordials were distilled: 
  from #5: Harl. 2378 p.278 
  "A precious water to clear a mans sight and destroy the pain in a mans
eye.
  - Take red rose, wood-sage (which some call capillus vereris), fennel,
ivy,
  vervain, eyebright, endive, and betony; of each equal amounts, so that
you
  have in all 6 handfuls; and let them rest in wine a day and a night.
The
  second day still them in a distillator; the first water that you
produce shall
  be the color of gold, the next of silver, the 3rd of balm; this
precious water
  may serve to ladies instead of balm."  (further:) "Another point which
we shall 
  see repeated in all these recipes is that, for the most part, the part
of the plant to 
  be used is not specified, and we are left to guess whether the root,
the stalk, the 
  seeds, or the flowers are meant." 
  ........................................ 
  Commentary about the distilling process itself: 
  #9. Johnstone Ms. P. 258. (probably 1400-1450, as it is the last entry)

      Trans: "For to make aqua vitae. - Take sage, and fennel-rotes 
     and persley-rotes and rosemaryne and tyme and lavender, each 
      in equal amounts. Wash them and dry them, and then grind 
       them a little in a mortar and add a little salt. Then put it 
        in the body of the distillator and pour in wine (red or 
      white), then place it in a pot of ashes over the furnace and 
        make a gentle enough fire underneath that when the 
        distillator begins to drip, look that it drips no faster 
      than you can say "one-two-three" between the drops. And so 
          distill it all together, then take the water that is 
        distilled, and distill again if you like, and take a little 
              spoonful every day while fasting." 
..........................
  Other research: Sugar and it's development: 
     "The sugarcane plant, indigenous to southern Asia, was first used
for the
  production of sugar between the 7th and 4th century B.C. in northern
India.
  Cane cultivation eventually spread westward to the Near East and was
  introduced to the Mediterranean region by the Arabs, giving rise to a
cane
  sugar industry that flourished there until the late 1500's. 
      Columbus introduced sugarcane to the New World on his second voyage
  in 1493, when it was first planted on the island of Hispaniola. Soon,
it seems,
  Isabel and her children became very fond of cane sugar and ate it
  seemingly at every meal. 
      Within the first ten years of the 16th century, (1509) a sugar cane
  processing factory was established in the New World. 
      During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish, English, and
French all
  established sugar production in their Caribbean island colonies." 
                               -1996 Louisiana State University
Libraries, etc. 
  ........................... 
  Rawcliffe, Carole.  Medicine & Society in Later Medieval England. Alan 
  Sutton Publishing       Ltd., United Kingdom, 1995.  ISBN 0 86299 598 
  Chapter: The Apothecary, p. 150.  "The use of sugar in pharmacy had 
  been pioneered by the Arabs, who were thus able to extend the Greek 
  pharmacopoeia by mixing different combinations of herbs, spices and 
  animal products with a sweet-tasting powder or syrup base."
  -  M. Levey, _Early Arab Pharmacoloogy_, Leiden, 1973, pp. 52-3.  G. E.
  Trease, 'The Spicers and Apothecaries of the Royal Household in the
Reigns
  of Henry III, Edward I and Edward II', Notingham Medieval Studies, III,
1959,
  p. 22. 
.................................................
Ian Gourdon of Glen Awe
OP, Midrealm Forester
"Well done is better than well said"