[Sca-cooks] RE: Medieval Fruit Trees

[Diamond Randall]

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>Can anyone recommend good books on fruit varietals that might have been
>grown in Italy and Spain in the 1400s?  I'm doing some background research
>for my latest magnum opus, and I need to identify varieties of lemons,
>cherries, apples, and peaches that would have appeared in those places and
>times.
>Thanks in advance,
>Vicente

I suggest you look at my extensive paper on "Fruit of Period Times" online in
Stefan's
Florilegium.  I doubt that you will find lemons grown in Europe at that time,
but
in the Middle East, certainly.  The Romans had them but only used them as
decorations.  I am unsure of just when they began actually consuming them.
There were no sweet oranges either, just bitter ones. Grapefruit had not yet
developed as a mutation of the citron.  You will have a lot of names of fruits
from that
period but connecting them up with their current names is very difficult,
especially
when you want to be so time and place specific.  The only apple I am sure of
in
Italy is the variety called "Lady" which is believed to be of Roman origins
and one
of the many listed by Apicius (though not by that name).  You may be certain
that
there were a lot of fruits that are now not so familiar in widespread use like
medlars,
sorbs and cornellian cherries (not a true cherry).  If you are looking for
versimilatude
in a period  plotline, I suggest you read my paper several times and then dive
headfirst
into its biliography.
Be aware there is a huge amount of poor research and outright WRONG
statements
in a large number of modern histories of cooking.  A huge number of so called
authorities only list varieties known to the English and when it was
introduced to England.
One thing is certain however, is that most fruits had their origins in Asia
minor largely in
the Transcaucus and probably were known for millenia in the wild before they
were
ever named as a variety and grown in an orchard..  Good luck; you will need
it.

Akim Yaroslavich

--- Diamond Randall
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