[Sca-cooks] Bananas/plantains....
David Friedman
ddfr at daviddfriedman.com
Tue Jul 20 10:45:38 PDT 2004
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
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