[Sca-cooks] Indian Maize in Italy in period??????

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

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