[Sca-cooks] Phaseolus et al

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Back in April we had a discussion of the various meanings of "bean" in  
period terminology. I was thinking at the time there must be images we could  
consult.
 
It turns out there are. Dalechamp's book on plants came out just as people  
were becoming aware of the Americas and has a chapter on the European 
version  (in the Latin edition) and another on the various "foreign" versions (in 
the  French edition):
 
Historia generalis plantarum...
By Jacques Dalechamps
472  Phasiolvs Lib IV: Cap. XLIX
 
http://books.google.com/books?jtp=472&id=_NGRilRpGGIC#v=onepage&q&f=false
 

Histoire generale des plantes , contenant XVIII. livres egalement  departis 
en deux tomes : tirée de l'exemplaire latin de la bibliotheque de Me  
Jacques Dalechamp, puis faite françoise par Me Jean des Moulins ... avec un  
indice ... ensemble les tables des noms en diverses langues. Derniere edition,  
reveuë, corrigée, & augmentée ... & illustrée...
Auteur : Dalechamps,  Jacques (1513-1588)
735 Phasiol d'Indie, du Bresil, etc.
 
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5408308s/f858.image.r=feve.langEN
 
The one  glitch is that I cannot make out any edible-sized seeds in the 
European variety.  But maybe someone else can do better.
 
Oh, and if you download Google's version, be warned that it has a quirk -  
the scanned pages themselves are a reasonable size, but for some reason they 
 have been scanned onto an ENORMOUS background.
 
Jim  Chevallier
 (http://www.chezjim.com/) www.chezjim.com

Les Leftovers: sort of a food history  blog
leslefts.blogspot.com