[Sca-cooks] Bananas/plantains....

[David Friedman]

Maire wrote:

>ISTR at least one discussion in the past about the period-ness of 
>bananas and/or plantains....isn't there some evidence of a peel or 
>something? in England?
>Would they have possibly been period-appropriate for 16th c. Venice?
>I'm asking for someone on another list....
>--maire

There is a 14th-c. northern Italian manuscript of the _Taciunum 
Sanitatas_ that was published as _The Four Seasons of the House of 
Cerruti_. The text was originally by an Arab physican, and it 
mentions bananas. The accompanying illustration makes it clear that 
the artist had never seen one, and the text says, "It is no surprise 
that Ellbochasim [the Arabic author] mentions this plant and its 
fruit, but as far as we are concerned we know of it only from texts 
or tales from merchants from Cyprus or pilgrims from the Holy Land. 
Silcilians, on the other hand, know them well."

Elizabeth/Betty Cook