[Sca-cooks] Indian Maize in Italy in period??????
lilinah at earthlink.net
lilinah at earthlink.net
Thu Nov 10 10:30:30 PST 2005
Kiri forwarded:
> Not "soon after 1500" but Cosimo de Medici, husband of Eleonora of
>Toledo mentions his "Indian Maize" crop in an Italian field. Checked out the
>Medici Archives Project where I found this:
>
> 1548 April 30
>
>Date Uncertain Doc undated
>From: Not Relevant in this Entry
>Location: Not Relevant in this Entry
>To: Not Relevant in this Entry
>Location: Not Relevant in this Entry
>Synopsis: Unsigned and undated note, probably in the hand of
>Lorenzo Pagni, between two dated drafts of letters from
>Duke Cosimo, ordering Pierfrancesco Riccio to have
>"Indian" grain planted in the field below the Vivaio in the
>garden at the Villa at Castello.
>Extract: [...] Scrivere al Maiordomo [Pierfrancesco Riccio] che
>faccia sementare il campo ch'? sotto il vivaio a Castello
>de' grani d'India
Kiri wrote:
>Comments??? Could they be using the term "maize" or "Indian Maize" the
>same way other writers used the term, "corn"...i.e., just another
>reference to a kind of flour, but not to what we know as corn?
It's quite likely this is Indian corn/maize. But it just indicates
that he ordered the planting of an exotic and foreign plant in *the
garden*. It doesn't in anyway show that he actually *ate* it.
--
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita
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