[Sca-cooks] squashes/pumpkins Fuchs

Terry Decker t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Sat Nov 10 19:35:04 PST 2007


>
>> New World squashes appear in Leonard Fuch's herbal of 1541.Do you mean 
>> the chapter "Von Kürbs" in Fuchs's New Kreüterbuch 1543?
>
> http://imgbase-scd-ulp.u-strasbg.fr/displayimage.php?album=24&pos=363
>
>
> The Latin herbal used to be online as well at Koblenz Library but it seems 
> to be no longer there.
>
> E.

I tend to work with a webbed version of the plates from the 1545 edition at 
http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/fuchs/

The first reference I have to publication lists 1541, but the 1542 and 1543 
editions seem to be more common.

Pages 209-211 list Cucurbita major, Cucurbita minor and Cucurbita oblonga. 
These are all gourds.

Pages 401-406 list Cucumis sativus vulgaris, Cucumis turkicus, Cucumer 
marinus, Cucumer citrullus, Pepones and Cucumer sylvestris.  Cucumis sativus 
vulgaris is the common cucumber.  Cucumis turkicus and Cucumer marinus show 
the deeper ribbing on some of the stems that suggest they are actually New 
World squashes.  The naming conventions suggest that Cucumer citrullus and 
Pepones are melons.  Cucumer sylvestris appears to be related to the 
cucumber and I wonder if it may not be Ecuballium elaterium (squirting 
cucumber).

Relating a New World squash to Turkey would be consistent with the 
nomenclature relating maize to Turkey and capsicum peppers to India.

Bear 




More information about the Sca-cooks mailing list