[Sca-cooks] Tomatoes in German herbal?

[Decker, Terry D.]

The first reference to tomatoes in European literature (of which I know) is
by Pietro Andrea Matthiolo (AKA Petrus Matthiolus, Pierandre Mattioli,
Mathioli, etc,).  I have seen dates for this of 1534 and 1544.  If 1534, it
probably appears in his "De plantis epitome utilissima..."  If 1544, this is
probably in his "Commentarii in sex libros Pedacci Dioscordis Anazarbei De
medica materia..." which first appeared as an unillustrated commentary and
was reprinted in 1555 and 1565.  The edition of 1565 is considered the most
complete and has illustrations.  As I have not observed any of the editions
first-hand and can't be sure of where it first appears; however, 1544 is the
more referenced date.

Matthiolo first referred to the tomato as "mala aurea" which he later
changed to "mala insana."  The tomato's bad reputation is probably from
Matthiolo's work.

A while back, Johnna provided me a reference to manuscript on the natural
history of the Indies in the Pierpont Library dating from between 1580 and
1595 which has illustrations of tomatoes.

To my knowledge, no 16th Century cookbook has a recipe tomatoes and the
recipes we do have are of the "it is said" variety.

I'm in the process of trying to chase down further reference.

Bear

> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> The following post appeared on the Rialto.  I mentioned
> Gerard's Herbal;
> anyone else know of any?
>
> Brangwayna Morgan
>
> Subject:    Re: period food - tomatoes
> From:   Hugo Fuchs <HugoFuchs at NOSPAM.cox.net>
> Date:   Tue, 10 Sep 2002 21:42:23 GMT
>
> Keep meaning to ask, and since the right people are reading in ...
> In the herbal "Kr=E4uterbuch" by Johannes Kentman, He shows a
> picture of
> red apples from the new world "Rote epfel aus der nauen welt" that can
> only be a picture of tomatoes. So is it possible that some apple
> recipies might actually be tomato recipes? also are there any other
> references that anyone knows of to new world apples in
> cookbooks or herbals=
> ?