Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval ImaginationYale University Press, 2008 M03 25 - 290 pages How medieval Europe’s infatuation with expensive, fragrant, exotic spices led to an era of colonial expansion and discovery: “A consummate delight.” —Marion Nestle, James Beard Award–winning author of Unsavory Truth The demand for spices in medieval Europe was extravagant—and was reflected in the pursuit of fashion, the formation of taste, and the growth of luxury trade. It inspired geographical and commercial exploration, as traders pursued such common spices as pepper and cinnamon and rarer aromatic products, including ambergris and musk. Ultimately, the spice quest led to imperial missions that were to change world history. This engaging book explores the demand for spices: Why were they so popular, and why so expensive? Paul Freedman surveys the history, geography, economics, and culinary tastes of the Middle Ages to uncover the surprisingly varied ways that spices were put to use—in elaborate medieval cuisine, in the treatment of disease, for the promotion of well-being, and to perfume important ceremonies of the Church. Spices became symbols of beauty, affluence, taste, and grace, Freedman shows, and their expense and fragrance drove the engines of commerce and conquest at the dawn of the modern era. “A magnificent, very well written, and often entertaining book that is also a major contribution to European economic and social history, and indeed one with a truly global perspective.” —American Historical Review |
Contents
FIVE Scarcity Abundance and Profit | |
Spices and Moral Danger | |
SEVEN Searching for the Realms of Spices | |
Portugal and Spain | |
CONCLUSION The Rise and Fall of Spices | |
Bibliography | |
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Common terms and phrases
according Africa aloe wood ambergris apothecaries Arab aromatic Asia banquet Barcelona Behaim Catalan China Chiquart Christian cinnamon Circa instans cloves coast Columbus commercial consumed cookbooks cooking Covilhã Crusade cuisine culinary dishes drugs earthly paradise East eastern Egypt European exotic expensive fifteenth century Flandrin flavor fourteenth century fragrance French galangal Gama gems ginger gluttony gold grains of paradise herbs Hereford Map History humoral important incense India Indian Ocean Indies ingredients Islam island king lands Laurioux Livre des simples London luxuries Marco Polo Martin Behaim meat medicine medieval cuisine Mediterranean merchants Middle Ages modern Mongols Moyen Âge Muslim nutmeg odor Odoric of Pordenone Paris pepper perfume Portugal Portuguese pounds Prester John profit recipes Red Sea rivers route ruler saffron sauces scent sexual simples médecines Spain spice trade spiced wine sugar taste thirteenth trans Venetian Venice voyage West Western William of Rubruck