[Sca-cooks] Arugula/Rocket/Eruca?

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Well, yes, but then various translations of De Villis also translate  
fasiolum as kidney bean and blidas as spinach, so I'm not sure the standard  
translations are all that useful a  guide.

https://www.le.ac.uk/hi/polyptyques/capitulare/latin2english.html


Nor  am I sure that the differentiations within De Villis are all that 
fine. The  writers may well have considered sinapis a different plant from what 
was later  called white mustard.


To complicate matters, there is also the term "rocket-leaved  mustard":

"In B. xix. c. 54. Fée identifies these three varieties of  mustard as 
follows; the slender-stemmed mustard of Pliny he identifies with the  Sinapis 
alba of Linnaeus, mustard with white seeds. The mustard mentioned as  having 
the leaves of rape he considers to be the same as the Sinapis  nigra of 
Linnaeus, mustard with black seed,  and that with the leaf of  the rocket the 
identifies with the Sinapis erucoïdes of Linæus , the Eruca  silvestris of 
Gessner or rocket-leaved mustard."
 
_http://books.google.com/books?id=IUoMAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor%3Apliny%20eruca&p
g=PA290#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=IUoMAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor:pliny%20eruca&pg=PA290#v=onepage&q&f=false) 
 
So this Eruca could also be Eruca silvestris.
 
Richard Bradley treats the white mustard seed variety merely as a variety  
of rocket:

"Eruca, Off. is called in English Rocket; there are several  Sorts of it, 
but that Sort which brings the white Mustard-Seed, is most commonly  sown in 
Gardens with other Sallad Herbs, which should be eaten only in the  
Seed-Leaves; this is more gentle than the Black Mustard, and is a quicker  Grower; 
it may be sown upon the natural Ground, from the Beginning of February,  till 
November, and in this Winter it is commonly sown under a Frame and Glasses, 
 with other young Sallad-Herbs"
_http://books.google.com/books?id=NuicQt6ozoYC&dq=%22Eruca%20silvestris%22&p
g=PT287#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=NuicQt6ozoYC&dq="Eruca%20silvestris"&pg=PT287#v=onepage&q&f=false) 
 

Is there any dependable documentation on when each of these terms took  on 
their current meanings? I'd really be surprised if one could be categorical  
either way.

In Villanova's text, the idea of mustard certainly would make  more sense.


Jim Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

Brother Leonard  on behavior  and  attitude
http://leslefts.
blogspot.com/2014/02/a-fourteenth-century-dietetic-brother.html



In a message dated 2/25/2014 11:03:48 A.M. Pacific Standard  Time, 
t.d.decker at att.net writes:
Various 
translations of the Capitulare  de villis translate eruca alba as rocket.