[Sca-cooks] early european 'beverage'? / pear juice

[Daniel Myers]

Very interesting stuff!  Where was this from?  Italy?

Since the word "siceratores" (brewers) is used, are they talking  
about fermented pear juice (similar to hard cider), or fresh, or both?

- Doc


On Nov 11, 2006, at 9:45 AM, sera piom wrote:
>
> << On another List, a scholar mentioned this:
> "Fortunatus in the sixth century describes the abstemious
> Radegund as drinking only water sweetened with
> pear juice." >>
>
> As far as I can see, he mentioned two different drinks.
> Venantius Fortunatus (see Patrologia Latina vol. 88,504)
> wrote:
> "potum vero praeter aquam mulsam, atque [NOTE m] piratium
> non bibit; [NOTE n] vini vero puritatem, aut [NOTE o] medi
> decoctionem, cervisiaeque turbidinem non contigit."
>
> That is: she drank nothing else apart from sweetened water
> and pear juice. "Piratium" is a noun referring to
> pear juice.
>
> The note m says "Pyratium, seu pyraticum, erat
> succus expressus e pyris, qui pro vino adhibebatur.
> S. Hieron., lib. II contra Jovin. 'Paulus', inquit,
> 'Timotheo dolenti stomachum, vinum suadet bibere, non
> piratium'."
> Roughly: Pyratium is juice that has been
> pressed from pears. It is used instead of wine. Hieronymus
> reports, that Paul recommended to Timotheus, who had a bad
> stomach, to drink wine instead of pear juice.
>
> In another Vita S. Radegundis, Hildebertus Cenomanensis
> (PL 171.976) wrote:
> "Sitim, quam nimia panis accendit ariditas, vel aquae mulsae,
> vel piratii haustu mitigavit. Nam vini, seu cervisiae nullam
> fecit omnino mentionem."
> Roughly: She mitigated the thirst, aroused by the strong
> dryness of the bread, by drinking either sweetened water
> or pear juice.
>
> In one of the Capitularia Caroli Magni (PL 97.355), the people
> producing pear juice are even mentioned:
>
> "45. Ut unusquisque iudex in suo ministerio bonos habeat artifices,
> id est fabros ferrarios, et aurifices, vel argentarios, sutores,
> tornatores, carpentarios, scutarios, piscatores, aucipites,
> id est aucellatores, saponarios, siceratores, id est qui
> cervisam vel pomatium, sive piratium, vel aliud quodcumque
> liquamen ad bibendum aptum fuerit, facere sciant; pistores,
> (...)".
> Roughly: the siceratores [brewers], that is the people
> who know to make beer, apple juice, pear juice or any
> other fluid which one may drink.
>
> Serafina Piomba