[Sca-cooks] Tomatoes Again

[Johnna Holloway]

Lets, see to start, it's Johnnae or Johnna and that is very likely
why you can't find the article and why you are getting 404ed on the one 
version:
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-VEGETABLES/16C-Tomato-art.rtf.

is the Florilegium version. [The MKCC files have gone away.]
We just concentrated on the early references in that article in
Italian and Spanish as that answered a question circulating at that time.

Briefly references in English (and this is not an article, although who 
knows I may do one)

Somewhat later references and in Englsih would include:

John Gerald mentions the tomato rather famously
and planted them at Holborn in the 1590's. It's mentioned in both 
editions of
the Herball. In the 1597 Herball, he says that it was "boiled with 
pepper, salt, and oile."

OED has this quotation under tomato:
*1604* E. G[rimstone] /D'Acosta's Hist. Indies/ vii. ix. 519 There was 
also Indian pepper, beetes, Tomates, which is a great sappy and savourie 
graine.

Expanding OED by research in EEBO-TCP

Acosta, José de, 1540-1600., Grimeston, Edward. The naturall and morall 
historie of the East and West Indies. 1604

on page 266 and 267 in "Of Axi or Indian Pepper. CHAP. 20."

They vse also Tomates, which are colde and very wholesome. It is a kinde 
of graine great and full of iuyce, the which gives a good taste to 
<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?sort=datea;c=eebo;cc=eebo;type=simple;q1=tomat%2A;firstpubl1=1470;firstpubl2=1700;idno=A22928.0001.001;node=A22928.0001.001%3A10.20;vid=494;seq=292>sawce, 
and they are good to eate.


on page 519 Of the strange tribute the Mexicaines paied to them of 
Azcapuzalco. CHAP. 9.

the Mexicanes carried the trees that were required, and moreover, a 
garden made and floating in the water, and in it much Mays, (which is 
their corne) already grained and in the eare: there was also Indian 
pepper, beetes, Tomates, which is a great sappy and savourie graine, 
french pease, figges, gourds, and many other things, al ripe, and in 
their season.

Acosta died in 1600 and the book was first translated into English and 
published in London in 1604.


Returning to OED, one finds  under love-apple: (which might also be an 
aubergine)
*1578* H. LYTE 
<http://dictionary.oed.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/help/bib/oed2-l2.html#h-lyte> 
tr. R. Dodoens /Niewe Herball/ III. lxxxv. 438 There be two kindes of 
Amorus or Raging love apples [Fr. /verangenes/, Du. /verangenes/].
*1622* J. MABBE 
<http://dictionary.oed.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/help/bib/oed2-m.html#j-mabbe> 
tr. M. Alemán /Rogue/ I. vii. 230 (/note/) A kinde of fruit growing on 
the ground like a Melon. Also they are called Amoris poma. Love-Apples, 
because they provoke a man to Lust. *
1688* R. HOLME 
<http://dictionary.oed.com.proxy.lib.umich.edu/help/bib/oed2-h3.html#r-holme> 
/Acad. Armory/ II. v. 81/2 He beareth Argent, two Love Apples.

---
Other EBBO-TCP mentions include:

Purchas his pilgrimes In fiue bookes in the 1625 edition

V. Of Emeralds, Pearles, Indian Bread, Trees, Fruites, Flowers naturall, 
and carried thither from Spaine.
They vse also Tomates, which are cold and very wholesome. It is a kinde 
of graine great and full of iuyce, the which giues a good taste to 
sawce, and they are good to eate.

Note the quote is the same as Acosta as translated by Grimeston.

A far more interesting passage (and indeed quite a bit on food and how 
it is eaten) can be found in
West Barbary, or, A short narrative of the revolutions of the kingdoms 
of Fez and Morocco with an account of the present customs, sacred, 
civil, and domestick
by Addison, Lancelot, 1632-1703. It was published in 1671.

Writing about West Barnary, he writes:
Besides the Sallad ordinary in other Countreys, they have one sort 
rarely to be met with in Europe, which they call by a word, sounding 
spanish Tomátos. This growes in the common fields, and when ripe is 
pluckt and eaten with oyle  it is pleasant but apt to cloy. Barengénas, 
as in Spain, grow creeping like Cucumers upon the Ground; These are 
boyled with Beef and Mutton, and of no vulgar estimation among the Moors.

Returning to Maison Rustique (and let me applaud you for reading footnotes)-
The Markham reference in the Michael Best edition is on page 62 footnote 
17 for those that want to follow along.

The 1600 and 1606 editions are on EEBO and the 1616 edition is up as 
full-text. So I looked at the 1616 first.

On page 253 in
CHAP. XLIX.  Of sweet smelling Hearbes.
it reads:
Within this small time there hath beene seene a plant somewhat like vnto 
apples of loue, bearing a round fruit like an apple, diuided vpon the 
outside as the melon is with furrowes, in the beginning it is greene, 
but afterward when it commeth to ripenesse, it becommeth somewhat 
golden, and sometimes reddish. This plant is more pleasant to the sight, 
than either to the taste or smell, because the fruit being eaten, it 
prouoketh loathing and vomiting.

So that is the Maison Rustique mention from the 1616 edition.

As to the question, has this Markham mention ever been noted before?
Actually yes, of course as one might suspect it did not escape the 
notice of Karen Hess and appears
in mentions in her notes to those Tudor-Jacobean culinary mss published 
as Martha Washington's Booke
of Cookery. See pages 15 and 16.

Hope this helps

Johnnae llyn Lewis



Barbara Benson wrote:
> Ciao!
>
> As is my wont, I was re-reading one of my books again and noticed
> something I had not before. I know that many of us have the Best
> translation of Markham's The English Housewife, so this isn't anything
> groundbreaking would be my guess. But I cannot access the Tomato
> article that Johanne wrote (I get 404ed) so I thought I would bring
> this up here (and if I remember correctly those references were
> specifically Spanish and Italian).
>
> In the gardening section, when Markham is telling his Housewife when
> to plant what there are two references to Apples of Love. Checking the
> footnotes the editor does indeed claim these to be Tomatoes. Also in
> the footnotes is the information that the gardening section is pretty
> much lifted in whole from Maison Rustique and therefore more suited to
> the French climate than the English. Also, that Maison Rustique was
> first translated into English in 1600, putting the original French
> version within period.
>
> Is this a reference that has already been thoroughly covered? I did
> not find a reference to this in the Florithingie. Maison Rustique is
> apparently available via EEBO but I do not currently have access to
> it.
>
> Thoughts, as always, are sought.Serena da Riva
>
>