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History of the Carrot Part Three
From Medicine to Food - A.D. 200 to 1500
Chapters in the history rooms:
The name Carota for the garden Carrot is found first in the writings of Athenaeus (A.D. 200), and in the book on cookery by Apicius Czclius. It was Galen the Greek physician at the court of Marcus Aurelius (second century A.D.) who named the wild carrot Daucus pastinaca (adding the name Daucus) to distinguish the Carrot from the Parsnip, though confusion remained steadfast until botanist Linnaeus set the record straight in the 18th century with his system of plant classification. The Greeks called the carrot Philon or Philtron from their word philo that means loving. However, the carrot's Latin name Daucus carota most influenced its present name that came from the French who named it carotte.
It is thought that this word comes from the Greek karoton through the Latin carota It has been known since ancient times and is believed to have originated in Afghanistan and adjacent areas. There is also a school of thought which says that it is derived from ancient Greek for a yellow root, slender leaved parsnip, so called because it was thought to impart a pleasant smell "Carum", or from karuon "a sweet taste. (Carum is a genus of about 20 species of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of the Old World, now known to be carraway.)
Galen said that the wild carrot "is less fit to be eaten than the cultivated variety".
The breakdown of the Roman Empire resulted in social disturbances, destruction of the large cities, and a general decline in culture, a period often referred to as the Dark Ages. This is evidenced in the deterioration in the accuracy and content of plant illustrations. Scribes continued to reproduce and embellish previous manuscripts, rather than observing and representing the existing native plants, and a dogmatic scholasticism that stifled original investigation.
The early Middle
Ages is a murky period in history for the study of
vegetables, but a copy of the Codex of Dioskorides dating from 500 to 511 ad is
illuminated with pictures of plants. The drawings are fairly accurate and convey
the important physical characteristics of the vegetables and herbs shown. Thus
it is possible to determine that a carrot shown in folio 312 (below) resembles
pretty accurately modern day carrot, and more importantly is the earliest
depiction of an orange root! The Codex is medical in nature, dealing with the
health and dietary aspects of the plants discussed.
It needs to be stressed that the original Dioscorides manuscript was not illustrated, although it has suggested that some of the illustrations in the 512 codex may have been derived from Krataeus, author of a lost herbal and physician to the King of Pontus, Mithridates VI Eupater, in the 1st century BCE.
Krateuas (Crateuas) 120 B.C. was physician in ordinary to Mithridates VI
Eupator, King of Pontus (died 63 B.C.). Krateuas described as well as
illustrated plants. Some fragments of his writings have been recognized in the
Anicia Codex of Dioscorides in the Vienna State Library to which reference has
been made below. Krateuas presumably produced the figures in natural colour and
they were continuously copied in many manuscripts and printed herbals from the
6th Century on. Krateuas is mentioned by Pliny.
(the original copy is maintained in the Austrian Library in Vienna, the scan
shown below is from the original)
See separate page showing illustrations from
ancient manuscripts.
AD 512 The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides: Illustrated by a Byzantine A.D. 512. - First reference to Orange Carrot - Dioskorides Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Greacus. (Austrian facsimiles from 1965, together with commentary - studied at the Royal Botanical Gardens Library, Kew Gardens, England).
Three "orange carrots" are depicted:
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Cultivated and wild carrots from the Juliana Anicia Codex of 512 |
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Staphylinos Keras |
Staphylinos Agrios |
Gingidion |
Above Left - The oldest known manuscript of Dioscorides work is the Juliana Anicia Codex (ca. 512 A.D.), housed in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Listed as Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Graecus 1., it is better known as “Vienna Dioscorides,” the oldest and most valuable work in the history of botany and pharmacology.
Since an original copy of Dioscorides’s herbal has never been found, we cannot be certain that it included illustrations. It is certain, however, that, in 512 A.D. or a little later,, a Byzantine artist in Constantinople illustrated Dioscorides’s herbal for presentation to Juliana Anicia, the daughter of Emperor Anicius Olybrius. The artist seems to have based his work on illustrations from the Rhizotomicon of Crateuas of Pergamon (1st century B.C.). This Codex reflects the habit prevailing in the aristocratic classes of ordering products of the hand book type of Literature. Juliana was the daughter of Flavius Anicius Olitrius, Western Emperor in 472.
Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides catalogued over 600 medicinal plant species and their possible medical uses, during his first century travels as a roman army doctor and who accurately describes the modern carrot. He compiled an extensive listing of medicinal herbs and their virtues in about 70 A.D. Originally written in Greek, Dioscorides' herbal was later translated into Latin as De Materia Medica. It remained the standard reference and authority on medicinal plants for over 1500 years. The third book of Dioscorides the Greek – Roots - sets out an account of roots, juices, herbs, and seeds — suitable both for common use and for medications. (Modern Translations here)
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| Original Script | Illustration - Staphylinos Keras |
Folio 312 (shown above right) clearly is an orange rooted carrot. The translation of the associated text reads:
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"111,52 Daucus carota var, silvestris and D Carota L., Wild and Cultivated
Carrot 1. The Wild Carrot: but some call it ceras. It has leaves like those of the carrot but wider and somewhat bitter, an upright stem that is rough and that has an umbel like that of dill on which there are white flowers, and in the middle there is something small and purplish, as if it were nap on woollen cloth; the root is as thick as a finger, a span long, aromatic, and edible when boiled. 2. When drunk or even when applied, its seed sets the menses going, it is suitable for those that pass water painfully and with difficulty, for those with edemata, for pleurisy in potions, and for bites and strokes of wild animals. They say that reptiles do not harm people who have taken it in advance; it also aids conception. As for the root, it, too is diuretic, aphrodisiac, and expels embryos/fetuses when used as a pessary. The leaves ground and applied with honey, clear cancerous sores completely. The cultivated carrot, which is more edible, is suitable for the same purposes, but it acts more weakly." Dioscorides also talked about Water Plantain which can be "used to stop colic and dysentery when drunk with an equal amount of Daucus." |
A second folio (09 88) refers to Gingidion (also referred to as the Cretan Carrot)
| " 111, 72 Athamanta cretensis L.,Daucos - Gingidion 1. Daucos: there is one kind called Cretan, having leaves like those of fennel but smaller and finer, a stem that is one span tall, an umbel like that of coriander, and white flowers; they contain seed that is white, rough, pungent when chewed, and fragrant; the root is a finger thick and one span long. (span = distance from tip of thumb to tip of small finger when hand is outstretched, about 5-7inches) It grows in rocky and sunny places. And there is another kind that nearly resembles wild celery; it is spicy and fragrant, and it tastes pungent and hot. The Cretan in superior. 2. The third kind resembles coriander in foliage and it has white flowers. Its top and fruit are similar to the dill's, the umbel is like that of carrot, it is full longish seed like cumin and it is pungent. The seed of all of them warms; when drunk, it draws out the menstrual period, embryos and fetuses, and urine, it relieves colic, and it allays chronic coughs; it comes to the aid of people bitten by poisonous spiders when drunk with wine, and it disperses swellings when plastered on. All of them are used for their seed, but the Cretan is also used for its root, which is mostly drunk with wine as an antidote to poisonous animals." |
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It should also be noted that Parsnip is referenced as a separate plant (Pastinaca Sativus) indicating a clear distinction with carrot.
Throughout the Medieval writings, carrots are confused with parsnips. When Linnaeus created scientific names, he called carrots Daucus carota parsnips Pastinaca sativa, so the two are clearly different. Before Linnaeus, however, Pastinaca sativa was used for both plants.
Fuchs in 1542 described red and yellow garden carrots and wild carrots, but names them all Pastinaca (Meyer Trueblood and Heller1999). Gerard (1633) uses the English name carrot, but calls it Pastinaca in Latin: Pastinaca sativa var. tenuifolia, the yellow carrot and Pastinaca sativa atro-rubens, the red carrot. Gerard distinguishes parsnips from carrots and calling the parsnip Pastinaca latifolia sativa and P. latifolia sylvestris.
Gerard notes the name similarity and is dissatisfied with it. He gives daucus as a name for carrot in Galen, but notes that many Roman writers called it pastinaca or other names. I don't think the plants were confused particularly, but since we have in many cases only the written word, if the Medieval writer called his plants "pastinaca", it is impossible to know if they were carrots or parsnips.
It is interesting when one reads the what the Herbalists of the 15th century say about carrot and how so many refer to carrot being used for animal bites, urination problems, conception aids and methods of expelling embryos and after birth. Clearly using this source from 1000 years earlier. Read about the Herbalists and how they recommended carrots here.
Another translation states - Dioscorides wrote "Ye root ye thickness of a finger, a span long, sweet-smelling, edible being sodden [boiled]. Of this ye seed being drank...and it is good for ye [painful discharge of urine] in potions, and for ye bitings and strokes of venomous beasts; they say also, that they which take it before hand shall take no wrong of wilde beasts. It co-operates also to conception, and it also being [diuretic], both provoketh [poison], and being applied; but the leaves being beaten small with honey, and laid on, doth cleanse rapidly spreading destructive ulceration of soft tissues." He recommended the seeds of Wild Carrot for the relief of urinary retention, to stimulate menstruation and to "wake up the genital virtue."
Anthimus c450-525 ad was a 6th century Byzantine Greek doctor who, while serving as an ambassador to the King of the Franks, wrote a cookery treatise that reflects both Byzantine and Frankish tastes. Anthimus is known in the food history world as author of "De observatione ciborum" ("Observations about food"), written either shortly after 511 AD, or sometime around 526 AD. It was probably the last cookbook to come out of the Roman Empire.
Anthimus lists, what was perceived at the time, as healthy and unhealthy eating habits and food and underlines the dependence of health on good food and nutrition. Anthimus mentions turnips in one paragraph, noting that they can be boiled in oil and salt or cooked with meat or bacon and flavoured with vinegar. In the next paragraph, he discusses pastinacea which could mean anything in the carrot/parsnip family, and notes that they can be eaten boiled or parboiled and then fried and are good mixed into other dishes.
Paul of Aegina or Paulus Aegineta (Aegina, 625–690) was a 7th-century Byzantine Greek physician best known for writing the medical encyclopedia Medical Compendium in Seven Books. For many years in the Byzantine Empire, this work contained the sum of all Western medical and surgical knowledge possessed by the Greeks, Romans and Arabina and was unrivalled in its accuracy and completeness.
Carrot (domestic and wild) was generally considered an aromatic was also included in potions and remedies for inflation of the stomach, the bladder, jaundice, the easing of menstruation and cancer.
On herbs - The garden and wild carrot, and the caraway, have roots which are less nutritious than turnip, but hot, manifestly aromatic, and diuretic. But when used too freely, they supply bad juices, and become of difficult digestion like other roots. Some call the wild carrot daucus ; it is evidently more diuretic than the other. The Staphylinus was unquestionably the Carrot. Apicius, among other methods of dressing it, directs to do it with salt, pure oil, and vinegar. On Hiccough - it is well known, that many people hickup when the food spoils on the stomach. Many also hickup from rigors. We will find an emetic a proper remedy in cases which are occasioned by fulness or pungency, and warmth in those from cold ; and, when the complaint is occasioned by a plethora of humours, there is need of strong evacuation. This may be accomplished by sneezing, but when emptiness is the cause, sneezing will not cure it ; for in such cases, we must give rue with wine, or nitre in honied water, orhartwort, or carrot, or cumin, or ginger, or calamint, or Celtic nard. For Glaucoma and suffusion - To the eyes we must make applications at first simple, such as honey and oil, with the juice of fennel, and afterwards compound, such as this : Of sagapene, dr. ii ; of cyrenaic juice, of white hellebore, of each, dr. vi. ; triturate with eight heminse of honey. We, says Oribasius, use the following medicine : Of the juice of wild carrots, of germander, of cresses, of each, equal parts; triturate. |
The Codex Neapolitanus is one of the oldest manuscripts in
the tradition of Materia Medica, the leading pharmacological work of Greco-Roman
times, written by the Greek surgeon Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century A.D.
The eminent role of this codex is not least due to the great number of botanical
illustrations and descriptions of plants in all their details.
The primary significance of Dioscorides as a major authority in his field is
evidenced by the wide spread use of his work over the centuries. In the 6th
century it was translated into Latin and from the 9th century, it was
transliterated and edited also in Arabic, Syrian and Hebrew. Materia Medica thus
remained the pharmacological reference work and was read not only by physicians
and botanists but also by interested lay botanists.
The Neapolitan codex can be dated to the early 7th century, although research
still ignores whether it was made in Byzantium or in Italy. G. Cavallo suggests
that the miniatures in the manuscript were obviously a product of the activity
of Greek artists in Italy. The 403 miniatures depict different plants and bear
unique testimony to the unmatched virtuosity of the illuminators of this period.
There are many surviving manuscripts of De Materia Medica after Codex Vindobonensis, an important example being the seventh-century Greek alphabetic Codex Neapolitanus, in the possession of a Neapolitan monastery for many years, and then presented to Emperor Charles VI in 1717. It was taken to Vienna and subsequently to the Bibliotheca Nazionale in Naples. Some of the drawings in Codex Neapolitanus are thought to be from the same source as Codex Vindobonensis, but are smaller and grouped together on fewer pages.
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Codex Neapolitanus (7thC) |
By the eighth century people had been using herbs as medical tools for over four thousand years. Herbalism and medicine were essentially the same practice.
After the fall of Rome, gardens and vegetables are rarely mentioned again until 795 ad, when King Charlemagne enacted a charter or capitulary entitled "Capitulare de villis vel curtis imperii" or "Capitulare de villis" (Of imperial lands and imperial courts), in chapter 70 of which appears a list of 90 plants and fruit trees recommended to cultivate in the gardens of the Frankish Empire, which covered western and central Europe. Carrots (carvitas) are found in the list of vegetables recommended for cultivation by Charlemagne. Note - Pastinacas (Parsnip) were also shown as a separate plant.
Charlemagne's edict tells his subjects what he expects of them:
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"We desire that they have in the garden all the herbs namely, the lily, roses, fenugreek, costmary, sage, rue, southernwood, cucumbers, pole beans, cumin, rosemary, caraway, chick pea, squill, iris, arum, anise, coloquinth, chicory, animi, laserwort, lettuce, black cumin, garden rocket, nasturtium, burdock, pennyroyal, alexander, parsley, celery, lovage, sabine tree, dill, fennel, endive, dittany, black mustard, savory, curly mint, water mint, horse mint, tansy, catnip, feverfew, poppy, beet sugar, marshmallows, high mallows, carrots, parsnips, oraches, amaranths, kohlrabis, cabbages, onions, chives, leeks, radishes, shallots, garlics, madder, artichokes or fulling thistles, big beans, field peas, coriander, chervil, capper spurge, clary." (Citation: Helen Morganthau Fox, Gardening with Herbs for Flavor and Fragrance (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1933, reprinted Dover Publications, Inc., 1970), p. 45.) |
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Charlemagne welcomed new fruits and vegetables into his royal gardens and set aside an area for growing carrots, though their flavour did not win them a great deal of acceptance there either. To lessen their appeal, the purple carrots turned brown when cooked. Worse still, any liquid and foods cooked in the same pot also turned brown.
9th Century
The medicinal properties of the carrot were already well established.
You can find more about the wonderful health properties on the
nutrition
pages.
At this time a wild red variety existed in Syria.
This variety would have travelled throughout the Mediterranean basin and would
have been carried by the Arabs in Andalusia, which encompassed the Arab-Andalusian
civilization between the 8th and 13th centuries. There is a curious legend on
this subject which claims that the white carrot evolved into the red carrot at
the time of persecutions of the first Christians. It is said that in a town of
Gaulle, a Christian maidservant, Marie, was stabbed by a pagan. Her blood was
spread on the white carrots which she was peeling. The legend says that “since
that time the carrots are red”. Walafrid Strabo (808-849 ad) wrote a poem in
ad 840 - "Hortulus". This German monk in the 9th century, was the Abbot
of Reichenau, an island monastery located on Lake Constance in Switzerland.
Hortulus, which translates to "The Little Garden", describes Strabo's personal
monastery garden. The poem contains descriptions of the many herbs that were
grown in his garden along with their medicinal uses. Here's the carrot reference
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Translation - 23 Daucus Carota L. [i.e., Linnaei] "There is also a fourth
kind/genus with the same similarity to the pastinaca - (very roughly, a
root vegetable that can mean many things in Latin), which our own French people
call by the Greek "daucon": of which there are also four kinds/genera."
Ninth and tenth century Viking finds in Yorvik (modern York, UK) show carrots, parsnips and turnips.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of recipes recorded in Viking times, there are few
truly authentic Viking recipes. However, scientists have been able to recreate
diets based on information received from examining the remains of corpses found
at archeological digs and knowledge of the types of food available in each
region.
The Vikings used carrots in several recipes including Honey Glazed Root
Vegetables and Chicken Stew with beer
(full recipes here)..
Source Vikingars Gästabud (The Viking Feast), also Viking Food
lady here.
In 10th Century carrot consumption is traced to
the hill people of Afghanistan (ad 900), who were sun-worshippers and believed that
eating orange or yellow coloured foods instilled a sense of righteousness.
People also ate yellow and purple conical tap root varieties of carrots in
Pakistan. At this time Arab merchants traversing the trade routes of Africa,
Arabia, and Asia brought seeds of this purple carrot back home with them.
From their villages and cities along the coast of North Africa, Moors brought
the carrot up into Spain and to the rest of Europe, probably from Afghanistan.
Yellow and purple carrots are first recorded in Asia Minor and the Byzantine
Empire (now Turkey) in the 10th century. This was a
mutation which effectively removed the anthocyanins which gives the red/purple
colour.
The oldest surviving medical text book in England is also the oldest herbal, for
of course herbs were medicine in the middle ages. This is the Leech Book of
Bald,(læce in Old English means healer) compiled in Ælfred's time or very shortly thereafter by a monk named Bald, and
penned, in its surviving copy, between 924 and 946 by a scribe (almost certainly
also a monk) named Cild and possibly under the influence of Alfred the Great's
educational reforms. This work included many references to carrot and remedies
for consumption, thick eyelids, smallpox and hiccups. It was also an ingredient
of a quieting drink. Read more in the herbalists page
here. In around 950, Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's produced a cookbook,
the most comprehensive work of its kind. This traditional cookbook with more
than 600 recipes using medieval ingredients and dishes from the luxurious
cuisine of medieval Islam is also a rare guide to the contemporary culinary
culture. He described the carrots used in his recipes thus: 1.
Red-orange (jazar ahmar) carrot literally 'red', described as juicy,
tender, and delicious. Poets compare it to carnelian, rubies, flames of
fire, and coral reeds. 2. Yellow Carrot (jazar asfar), thicker and denser in texture than the
red. 3. White Carrot (jazar abyad) similar to parsnips, aromatic, and
deliciously sharp in taste. It is also described as having a pleasant crunch. For more details on the cookbook and the 10th century recipes using carrots,
there is a separate page in the Carrot museum. Here. The cultivated carrot is believed to originate from Afghanistan before
the 900s, as this area is described as the primary centre of greatest carrot
diversity (Mackevic 1929), Turkey being proposed as a secondary centre of origin
(Banga 1963). The first cultivated carrots exhibited purple or yellow roots.
Carrot cultivation spread to Spain in the 1100s via the Middle East and North
Africa. In Europe, genetic improvement led to a wide variety of cultivars. White
and orange-coloured carrots were first described in Western Europe in the early
1600s (Banga 1963). Concomitantly, the Asiatic carrot was developed from the
Afghan type and a red type appeared in China and India around the 1700s (Laufer
1919; Shinohara 1984). According to this history, it makes sense to envisage
that colour should be considered as a structural factor in carrot germplasm.
The Old English Herbarium (late10th C) takes its material from Pliny and other
Latin compilations and cites uses for carrot:
82. Wild Carrot of Parsnip (Daucus cartoa L, or Pastinaca sativa L, pastinaca
sivatica, Feldmoru.
This plant which is called pastinace silvatice or wild carrots, grows in sandy
soils and hills.
1. If a woman has difficulty in giving birth, thae the plant we call pasticanna
sivatica (willd carrot or parsnip), simmer it in water, and give it so that she
can bathe herself with it. She will be healed.
2. For a woman's cleansing, take the same plant, pastinaca, simmer it in water,
and when it is soft, mix it well and give it to drink. She will be cleansed."
read more here. A 10th century manuscript
of the work is in the Musee Meermanno Westreenianum, Holland.
Den Haag, MMW, 10 D 7 (left) is an image from the 10th century
version of the Pseudo Apulieus.
It is known
that purple or red and yellow carrots were cultivated in Iran and Arabia in the
10th century and in Syria in the 11th. By the 12th century carrots were reported
in Spain, followed by Italy in the 13th, France, Germany and Holland by the 14th
century. English references occur in the 15th century. The word
for Carrot appears in the Anglo-Saxon period in England (post Roman to 1066)
e.g. The Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, by John R. Clark Hall 1916 dictionary: more f. carrot, parsnip moru f. parsnip, carrot (= more). næster 'caucale,' an umbelliferous plant? wild carrot? wealh-moru, -more mora m. carrot, parsnip.
(source:
http://manybooks.net/support/h/halljrc/halljrc3154331543-8pdfLRG.pdf)
Carrot was known in Britain in the Anglo Saxon period (early C5 to 1066) and
several academic Anglo-Saxon dictionaries cite the following terms as referring to
carrot: ease 'caucale,' an umbelliferous plant, wild carrot? . more f. carrot,
parsnip, ['more'] moru f. parsnip, carrot (= more). næster 'caucale,' an umbelliferous plant? wild carrot? wealh-moru, -more (a^1) f., -mora m. carrot, parsnip. (reference: Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, by John R.
Clark Hall 1916 dictionary)
11th Century In About 1086, Ibn al Bassal an Islamic Botanist and scholar who lived in Seville, Spain from wrote a lengthy treatise on agronomy (Diwan al-filaha) “Libro de Agricultura” - The Book on Agriculture, a treatise on agriculture.
It is full of information on the cultivation of plants and trees, pharmacological data and many items on botany.
Very little is known about his life. However, judging from the meaning of his Arabic name Ibn Bassal (i.e. the Son of the Onion Grower), he seems to be a learned agriculturalist from a farming family.
The book, though not a cookbook per se, it contains information about the different kinds of foodstuff and how to produce them and preserve them, in addition to the agricultural methods in cultivation, irrigation, pets control and land tilling in Andalusia in the 11th century.
The treatise by Ibn Bassal is singular in that it contains no reference to earlier agronomists; it appears to be based exclusively on the personal experiences of the author, who is revealed as the most original and objective of all the Hispano-Arabic specialists.
The treatise was lost for many years until a mediaeval Castilian translation of it was discovered by Prof. Millis in the Cathedral Library of Toledo and extracts of it were published by him in 1942.
Bassal’s ancient text deals with all the fundamentals of horticulture and propagation. In Chapter XIII he deals with Garden plants - Rapes,
carrots, radishes, garlic, onions, leeks, parsnip, capsicum (pimento), madder.
The interesting feature of it is its character. It is matter of fact, practical, didactic, concise; there is no nonsense in it and no digressions on materia medica, no magic
and no astrology.
Here is a grand prescription from the Arabian School of old physicians (based on the
universal antidote of King
Mithridates:
Sixty-six ingredients composed this mixture, and with the exception of the
last, we may safely affirm that the physicians who prescribed it were
entirely ignorant of the effects of any one of them, either taken by
those in health or given to the sick. Another Arab book of agriculture from around 1180 by Ibn al-‘Awwam
also lists carrots and many more vegetables in the cultivated plants of
Andalusia
and suggests that there was a real wave of plant introductions to Spain
soon after 1100.
Bodleian Scripts - 11th Century
The late 11th century witnessed an intriguing
script from Bury St Edmonds in England - MS Bodley 130 -
a handwritten manuscript
containing a copy of a much earlier Latin text; its illustrations are similarly
inherited. The original illustrated text had been compiled in the late Roman
period (4th or 5th century) relying on Greek sources.
Known as "Pseudo.-Apuleius, Dioscorides,
Herbals (extracts); De virtutibus bestiarum in arte medicinae, in Latin and
English", St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury; c. 1070-1100. This apparently shows a diagram of an orange carrot,
which, according to most other historical records did not appear until the 15th
century. So another mystery in the origins of modern carrot. The same recipe as written above also works against
toothache."
Further evidence of the use
by the ancients of Pastinaca for both carrot and parsnip.
Much more background information, including a full translation of the script together with a larger photo are included on a separate page
here.
Important Copyright Notice:
The image (left) appears with the kind permission of the Bodleian
Library and is copyright and any use is restricted by law. Any unauthorised
copying or reproduction will constitute an infringement of copyright.
The script is held by the Bodleian Library of Oxford University
as part of its collection of illuminated mediaeval manuscripts.
Similar scripts - MS. Ashmole 1462 and MS Ashmole 1431 contain the same Pseudo-Apuleian text as MS. Bodl. 130, though
with some slight variations in wording.
You will notice a typo! "Pasnatica" instead of "Pastinaca" - a typical
transcription error in such scripts. This again gives a remedy for
toothache. Otherwise the same recipes and place names as in the MS Bodley script
referred to above.
The carrot leaves and flower do look quite accurate and no doubt orange is the
root colour!
Click on photos for full picture - note this a large file and
will take a while to download.
Important Copyright Notice: The
images (above) appear with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library and are
copyright and any use is restricted by law. Any unauthorised copying or
reproduction will constitute an infringement of copyright.
The script is held by the Bodleian Library of Oxford University
as part of its collection of illuminated mediaeval manuscripts.
In the 12th century there was a period of Arab
expansion into the Middle East and Asia.
Moorish invaders (from Morocco)
and then Arabian traders brought seeds of purple and a mutants yellow carrots to
the Mediterranean via the coast of North Africa, along with spinach and
aubergines. They quickly spread across Europe from Spain, into Holland, France
and finally England.
During that period the carrot travelled westward into the Mediterranean
countries. Arab writer, in Spain Ibn al-Awam, in the Kitab al-Filahah -
his book on Agriculture - citing a much older work
(probably Ibn al Bassal an Islamic Botanist mentioned above) gave a
definitive description of two varieties of carrots he encountered in the early
part of the 12th century: a red one (probably purple) he says is tasty and juicy
and the other, a yellow and green carrot, he calls coarser and of inferior
flavour. Al-Awam writes that carrots were served with a dressing of oil and
vinegar or added to vegetable mixtures and cereals, probably grains.
There were also published texts called antidotaria which were recipes for
compounded medications. One of the more widespread ones was called Antidotarium
Nicolai available in 1140. This was later used in the curriculum at the
University of Paris by the late 13th c.
Nicholas of Salerno, also known as Nicolaus Salernitanus Italian physician
who is traditionally considered the author of this famous medieval treatise on
pharmacology and antidotes known as the Antidotarium Nicolai. This formulary is
an important source of information about medieval pharmacy, materia medica,
dentistry, and pharmacotherapy, and it was probably based on the anonymous
Antidotarius magnus (composed between 1087 and 1100).
Here is what the text says about carrots: Baucia, „Daucus graecus id est
bautia vel pastinaca" (M. Sylv.). „B. dats pasternake ende men
doeter meer in spisen dan in medicinen" (Herb.). Zie : pasternake. Suggesting that the carrot was used more as spice than for medicine.
Baucia Daucus = wild carrot Source -
Eene Middelnederlandsche vertaling van het Antidotarium
Nicolai, Ms. 15624-15641, Kon. Bibl. te Brussel, met den Latijnschen tekst
der eerste gedrukte uitg. van het Antidotarium Nicolaï. Uitg. door W.S.
van den Berg (1917)
By the 13th century
scientific enquiry was returning and this was manifest through the production of
encyclopaedias, those noted for their plant content included a treatise by
Albertus Magnus (c.1193–1280) a Suabian educated at the University of Padua and
a tutor to St Thomas Aquinas). It was called De vegetabilibus (c.1256 AD) and
even though based on original observations and plant descriptions rather than
questions than medicine it bore a close resemblance to the earlier Greek, Roman
and Arabic herbals
Carrots were being grown in fields, orchards, gardens, and vineyards in Germany
and France. At that time the plant was known also in China, where it was
supposed to have come from Persia. Doctors in the Middle Ages prescribed carrots
as a medicine for every possible affliction, from syphilis to dog bites!
The curious carrot traversed the route eastward via European travellers and
explorers to set its roots into India and the Far East during the 13th century.
The most heavily used culinary source is also one of the oldest: the Kitab
al-tabikh, otherwise known as the Baghdad cookery book. It was written down in
1226, although internal evidence clearly indicates that the material was
compiled from several much earlier sources, some of which were not Arabic. This
ambiguity is one of the difficulties in using cookbooks to pinpoint the
introduction of new vegetables. The book also makes ample reference to fava
beans, cardoons, rhubarb, leeks, the ridged cucumber, carrots, gourds,
taro, cultivated purslane, turnips, sweet fennel, and spinach. Around 1287 a relatively unknown and forgotten botanist Valgius Rufinus wrote
"Of the Virtues of Herbs and of their Compositions" Al-Awam who lived in Andalusia, a region in southern Spain, noted that Arab
travellers brought carrots from their homeland to the European continent.
The curious carrot traversed
the route eastward via European travellers and explorers to set its roots into
India and the Far East during the 13th century. By the 14th century the
Netherlands, France and Germany were introduced to the carrot. It took another
century to reach England's shores during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. An anonymous Andalusian Cook Book gives recipes including for the Great Drink
of Roots, Syrup of Carrots and Carrot Paste (jam) and a stew with carrots.
Read full
detail here - pdf.
(Source:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Andalusian/andalusian10.htm#Heading516)
Carrots were introduced to
China in the Yuan dynasty (1260-1367) probably from Iran. (Laufer)
Tractatus de herbis (Herbal) - Egerton MS 747 held by the British
Library was produced between 1280 and 1310 and is probably an original
manuscript of Tractus de Herbis a type of medicinal herbal which was to become
one of the most influential texts on medicinal plants between the 14th and 16th
centuries.
Written by Bartholomaei Mini de Senis; Platearius; Nicolaus of
Salerno, it contains miniature illustrations of plants in colours, usually
several on a page, together with their medicinal uses inherited from Greek,
Roman and Arabic sources. It also covered instructions on how to prepare each
fruit or vegetable. In some cases it gives suggestions on the aphrodisiac,
cosmetic and magical properties of herbs.
The illustrations are drawn from life wherever possible to produce identifiable
likenesses but over the centuries these herbals were copied repeatedly by
scribes and artists who were anxious to reproduce the books in front of them.
Haste, lack of skill and misunderstandings frequently resulted in plant images
that were simplified, distorted and often unrecognisable!
This is the record on Daucus (picture right)
The 14th century - saw carrot references
starting to appear in main land Europe.
A large quantity of what appear to be processed fruits of Daucus carota L. were
recently found in Rynek Glowny (the main market square) in Krakow in a medieval organic
layer, dated to the 14th century AD. This therefore is perhaps the first archaeobotanical evidence indicating the cultivation of carrot in medieval
Poland. Unprocessed carrot fruits, wild and cultivated forms being
indistinguishable, are found in Europe from the Neolithic period onwards.
The sample appears to be seed for cultivation, probably sold in the main market
square. Indeed, the find represents very strong evidence for medieval carrot
cultivation in central Europe. Carrots are not
mentioned very often in Polish sources from the 14th and 15th
centuries. Carrots may have been implied under the general term olera
.(vegetables for boiling) buy even the archaeological record is slim because the
seeds do not preserve well in the ground and are difficult to differentiate from
wild carrot. Carrots are only mentioned four times in the accounts of King
Wladyslaw and Queen Jadwiga, yet in each case the implication is that these are
specially cultivated and brought early to market. (source -
Food and Drink in Medieval Poland Rediscovering a Cuisine of the Past Maria
Dembinska. Translated by Magdalena Thomas)
An exceptionally large concentration of carrot fruits recovered from Krakow’s
main market square represent the first convincing archaeobotanical evidence for
carrot cultivation in medieval Poland. The fruits have deliberately had their
spines removed, a process undertaken to prepare carrot fruits for sowing, and
are statistically larger in size than other occasional carrot fruits recovered
from medieval archaeological contexts in the city.
Due to Krakow’s location at the centre of important medieval trade routes
between Asia and Europe, it is possible that they may be a part of that trade
and imported from further afield. The city was situated at a crossroads of trade
routes and played an important role in medieval trade, especially of oriental
goods. In early medieval times Krakow had connections with Kiev, playing a
crucial role in trade between Khazaria and Western Europe.
Tacuinum Sanitatis Lavishly illustrated manuscripts known as the
Tacuinum Sanitatis were firs These manuscripts were based on an 11th century Arabic manuscript known as
the Taqwim al-Sihha bi al-Ashab al- Sitta (Rectifying Health by Six Causes),
which was a guide for healthy living written by the Christian physician and
philosopher Abu al- Hasan al-Mukhtar ibn al-Hasan ibn ‘Abdun ibn Sa’dun Ibn
Butlan (d. 1063), who was born and educated in Baghdad and whose travels took
him to localities that are today in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey. The
Taqwim was a guide for healthy living, based on ancient philosophical concepts
of Greek sciences. It summarized in tabular form information on some 280
health-related items, in particular food and especially vegetables and fruits. (picture right - (E) parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) from Vienna 2644 folio
28r; (F) carrot (Daucus carota) from Roma 4182 folio 49r.)
Henry Daniel 1315 (approx) - 1385 Although little is known
of Daniel's life, a good deal can be deduced from his
surviving works, which include translations of medical treatises from the Latin
and an extensive herbal,
De re Herbaria (1375). He must originally have been comparatively well-to-do, but
later became poor and joined the Dominican Order. It was probably after
entering religion that he was able to get access to the many authorities which
he consulted in the compilation of his herbal.
Daniel was a scholar of distinction and a student of medicine. He sought out works which, in many cases,
must have been rare in English libraries, and his surviving translations are
correct, clear, and forcibly expressed. In his youth Daniel studied
medicine for seven years and in his later life had a large garden at Stepney,
London, in which he grew 252 different kinds of plants, a very large number for
the period.
Carrots were named by Daniel in the list of habitats as - "growing in dry places, and in meers."
In approx 1350 it is known
from archaeological evidence that they consumed a variety of vegetables, both
grown in gardens and gathered in the wild in the British Isles. Vegetables
known from Jorvík (modern York) or Dublin include carrots, parsnips,
turnips, celery, spinach, wild celery, cabbage, radishes, fava beans and peas.
In the Netherlands, France and
Germany were introduced to the carrot. It took another century to reach
England's shores during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. carrots had spread across
north-western Europe. Poor country dwelling folk used the roots for soups
that formed the main staple diet.
In around 1340 - Das buch von guter spise
(the book of good food), also known as ein buch von guter spise was
published, the earliest known German language cookbook. It is dated from
between 1345 to 1354. The household manual, which included guter spise,
was organized by Michael de Leone, who was the proto-notary (chief clerk) of the
Archbishop of Würzburg. The surviving portion of the manuscript is in the
library of Munich University.
79.
Ein morchen mus - A
carrot puree
Der
wölle machen ein morchenmus. der nem morchen. und erwelle daz uz einem
brunnen. und geballen uz eime kaldem wazzer. und gehacket cleine. und tu
ez denne in ein dicke mandelmilich. und mit wine wol gemacht die
mandelmilich. und die morche dor inne erwellet. und tu dorzu würze genue.
und ferwez mit fialblumen und gibz hin. Source
- http://cs-people.bu.edu/akatlas/Buch/recipe79.html
One of the earliest references to the red
carrot in Europe comes from the Menagier of Paris who, in the 14th century,
writes a series of instructions for his wife. The carrot at this time was
apparently fairly new to the market for he feels it is necessary to describe
for her how one may recognize the carrot (red root).
1393 - Le Ménagier de Paris (a medieval manuscript dated to circa
1393), contained an enormous chapter containing 197 pages of recipes,
menus, and general cookery and household instructions. In the section dealing
with "Other small and unnecessary things", it is advised to cook them like
turnip, and where the author directs his wife how to find carrots (the root may
have been rare at that time and place) they are described as red roots which are sold at the Halles in baskets,
and each basket costs one blanc.
The script also included a recipe for
carrots in honey - basically boiled and then cooked in honey! There are various
sorts of jams, mostly made with honey; in the Middle Ages vegetables were
evidently much prepared in this way, for the Menagier speaks of turnip, carrot,
and pumpkin jam.
Item, on All Saints, take
carrots as many as you wish, and when they are well cleaned and chopped in
pieces, cook them like the turnips.
("Garroites [carrots?] are red roots that are sold out of (Les) Halles in
bunches, and each bunch (costs) a blanc [a silver coin equivalent to a
sixpence]."
By way of comparison, the cost per bunch is half the cost of a chicken at the
time.) The "like turnips" is to cook them a bit in water (not over-cook), drop
in cold water to stop them cooking, drain, and then put into lukewarm honey and
soak for a long time (perhaps for a week, then start again with the honey
lukewarm, until a month has gone by). Compost/Pickled Root Vegetables Forme of Cury from Curye on Inglysch - 14th
Century Cook book
Modern Version - Parboil root vegetables, cabbage in water until
almost tender. Drain and cool. Mix honey and wine together. Add to spices
to the wine and honey mixture, mix thoroughly. Cover vegetables with wine
and honey mixture. Keep covered at least 24 hours. Although 3 days is
best. Then arrange on a platter and serve
In the 15th century the early orange varieties were
introduced to England by Flemish refugees who grew them in quantity mainly
in Kent and Surrey. Several Herbalists mention "karettes" in their lists
of roots for a garden. A separate page in the Carrot
Museum details what the herbalists said. Here.
The end of the 15th century is the end of the period which linguists know as
"Middle English" (commencing in the 11thC). Words for carrot are found in
several middle English dictionaries and here is an example:
The carrot had different names in old English - feld-more, more, feldmoru and
wealhmore. One of the most famous
physicians of this period was Master John Arderne, Surgeon of Newark
(England), who wrote De Arte Phisicali (c.1412) ("The Art of Medicine) and who
treated royalty. He wrote about
medical complaints and their remedies and was considered a master in his field
but his cure for kidney stones was a hot plaster smeared with honey and pigeon
dung!
Arderne was essentially an operating surgeon whose practice lay amongst the
nobility, wealthy landowners and the higher clergy. He was himself well educated
though a layman and he met his patients on terms of equality.
Here is how he used carrot seeds. "Against constipation when it is due to deformity of the liver and hot
materies morbi. Digest the materies morbi thus : R. endive, scolopendrium,
maidenhair aa. one handful ; the four lesser cold seeds and fennel aa. Bj ;
sandals Bi- Make a syrup of them and purge the patient with rhubarb. If
it be from a cold cause he must by no means eat butcher's meat, but he may have
the flesh of fowls. Let him sometimes drink poor man's broth and sometimes rich
man's, but if he is a pauper let him drink his own urine. If, for any reason he
will not drink it let him wash the region of the liver or collect his water for
4 or 5 days and then make a decoction. Distil it and clear it with white of egg
and of that water make a syrup with these seeds, smallage, carrot,
parsley, caraway, fennel and the four cold seeds not cleansed, &c. aa. 31/2, a
handful of .... and an ounce of red saunders. Make a syrup with honey and sugar
q.s. and give it with 3iii of benedict in a decoction of polypody, anise and
fennel seed. The greater cold seeds were Citrul, Cucumber, Gourd and Melon. The
lesser cold seeds were Endive, Succory, Lettuce and Purslain. The greater hot seeds were Anise, Caraway, Cumin and Fennel. The lesser hot seeds were Bishop's weed [Ammi majus], Amomum, Smallage and
Wild Carrot" (Above from the Replica of the Stockholm Manuscript in the Wellcome
Historical Medical Museum. Drawing of Arderne from 15th Century manuscript in the British
Museum, Sloane MS. 2002 ). Two fifteenth century cooks books taken from
the Haeleiian Manuscripts.
279 (1430), & MS. 4016 (about 1450) show the use of carrots in England at this
period. Carrots were called the old English "Wortes". The recipes
included, Hare in Wortes, buttered wortes, long wortes de pesone and
whyte wortes in a pottage. Some sources indicate that Wortes could also be any
field vegetable which was available.
This page lists some of the dishes served at a feast held
for the ordination of the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1443. The feast
included a 'sotelte' or 'subtlety' - an elaborate sugar sculpture - in
this instance in the form of a biblical scene. In 1400 an orange rooted illustration of Pastinaca appeared, this time in an Italian herbal,
Herbarium Apuleii, Lombardy.(right) At the top of each stem are small round objects. (Cf. Corpus
medicorum Latinorum, v. 4, p. 147-148.) Adjacent text: Herbarium Apuleii. (Source :Yale Medical Library. Manuscript. 18
[Herbarium Apuleii and other works]. [ca. 1400] MS 18 fol. [33v] ) (source)
1475 -
Carrot is also mentioned by Italian cook Bartolomeo Sacchi (a.k.a Platina)
in his dish
"Cariota"
- Here are some words and, and recipes of sorts, for both the carrot and the
parsnip. He considers them simply variations of the same medicinally useful
vegetable. Probably in the summer of 1465 Platina composed De honesta
voluptate et valetudine ("On honourable pleasure and health") considered by some
to be the first printed cookbook, a monument of medieval cuisine in Renaissance
intellectual trappings left the press in 1474 and ran into dozens of editions,
disseminating Roman ideas about fine dining throughout Western Europe.
On the Carrot and Parsnip - There are two kinds of parsnip (probably parsnip and
carrot). Doctors say that the parsnip is white while the carrot is red or
almost black. Both are difficult to digest and of little and harsh
nourishment. The parsnip should be boiled twice, with the first water thrown
away, and cooked with lettuce the second time. Transferred from there to a dish
and seasoned with salt, vinegar, coriander, and pepper, it is suitable to eat,
for it settles cough, pleurisy, and dropsy, and arouses passion. It is even
customary for it to be rolled in meal and fried in oil and fat when it has been
hollowed out after the first boiling.
Another version Platina p. 68 (Book 4) ... The parsnip should be boiled
twice, the first liquid thrown away and cooked the second time with lettuce.
Then it is put on a plate and dressed with salt, vinegar, coriander, and pepper,
and is very fit to serve. ... The carrot is prepared in the same way as the
parsnip, but is considered more pleasant when cooked under warm ashes and
coals... Modern Recipe - 1 lb carrots 1/2 t
salt 1/2 t coriander 2/3 lb lettuce 1 T + 1 t vinegar 1/12 t pepper Wash
carrots, wash and tear up lettuce. Put carrots in boiling water, boil 12
minutes. Drain them. Put carrots and lettuce in boiling water for another 6
minutes. Drain them. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Carrot also appeared frequently in several Islamic cookery books of the
15th century including a famous on written by Ibn al-Mabrad. Here is one
reference:
After Columbus' first visit to the Caribbean in 1492, the islands became the
melting pot of the world with explorers from Europe, Asia, Africa and America
who each brought plants, animals, and customs from their homelands.
Images from 1485 - Herbarius. Patauie impressus : Johann Petri.
Entitled "Of the Virtues of Herbs". Original in Harvard University Library.
According to Hales History of Agriculture by dates (1915)
"1485.—Previous to the reign of Henry, VII., King of England, which began in
this year, there did not grow in that country any vegetable or eatable root,
such as carrot, parsnip, cabbage."
Alcuin
(ca. 732-804), who was an Anglo-Latin scholar asked - "What is an herb?"
According to legend, he posed this question to his pupil Charlemagne,
the 8th century ruler of France. The
King's reply was, "The friend of physicians and the praise of cooks." That
an herb should be called "the friend of physicians" might seem odd to twenty
first century readers, but Charlemagne's answer was certainly true of his
time.
XXIII Daucus Carota L "Est et quartum genus in eadem similitudine Pastinacae,
quam nostri Gallicani vocant, Graeco Daucon: cuius genera etiam quatuor fecere."
(similar in likeness to pastinaca from France and Greece)
(source -
http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/vikfood.html)
Jazar - carrots. Of the cultivated varieties
"The pastinaca silvatica plant which is wild carrot or parsnip -
For difficult
childbirth and
For womens cleansing -
This 10th century image shows Pastinaca Silvatica, which
herbalists also knew as wild carrot or parsnip.
(900-1000 a.d.)
It taken from a version of the Pseudo-Apuleius the author of a
Herbarium or
De herbarum virtutibus, also referred as
Herbarium Apuleii Platonici; which is a medical herbal of the 5th century,
A.D. (see above)
(Reference:
http://collecties.meermanno.nl/handschriften/showmanu?id=1524&page=0&page_size=40
ease 'caucale,' an umbelliferous plant, wild carrot?
One of the most favourite of their preparations, which went by the name of
Theriacum, was composed of the following substances: — Squills, hedychroum,
cinnamon, common pepper, juice of poppies, dried roses, water-germander,
rape seed, Illyrian iris, agaric, liquorice, opobalsam, myrrh, saflFron,
ginger, rhaponticum, cinquefoil, calamint, hore- hound, stone-parsley,
cassidony, costus, white and long- pepper, dittany, flowers of sweet rush,
male frankincense, turpentine, mastich, black cassia, spikenard, flowers
of po- ley, storax, parsley seed, seseli, shepherd's pouch, bishop's weed,
germander, ground pine, juice of hypocistis, Indian leaf, Celtic nard,
spignel, gentian, anise, fennel seed, Lem- nian earth, roasted chalcitis,
amomum, sweet flag, balsa- mum. Pontic valerian, St. John's wort, acacia,
gum, carda- mom, carrot seed, galbanum, sagapen, bitumen, oposonax,
castor, centaury, clematis, Attic honey, and Falernian wine.
"The script indicated that It grows in stony places and mounds." and "For women who suffer at
childbirth and are not purged. - With 'Herba pastinaca', cooked, together with
the same water in which it was cooked, you take 30 peppercorns; mix together and
give to drink; she will be purged.
MS Ashmole 1431 -
Pastinaca (Carrot) left
MS. Ashmole 1462 - Pastinaca Silvatica
The prologue to the work states:
" And I have collected from the sayings of the ancient sages describing
the virtues of the herbs and their workings in inferior
bodies according
to what they had experienced and the truth they were able to find
concerning these. And first I quote the words of DIASCORIDES, second Circa
instantis, third MACER, fourth ALEXANDER THE PHILOSOPHER, fifth the
masters of Salerno, sixth ISAAC, seventh the Synonyms."
He almost doubles in length the account of dittany and adds to nearly a page
from authorities on daucus the statement that there are three kinds: "
Daucus asininus and it is called pastinata and likewise baucia. And there is
daucus Creticus which is called cartuge and there is another noble daucus which
is called affanaria. Furthermore there is a daucus which is called pastumcellus.
Its seeds cling to one's clothes. It is
given for cricks,-detur pando ( ?)." Albertus has only four lines on dittany and
his account of daucus seems limited to the Cretan variety.
(Reference: Journal of Archeological Science, Journal of
Archaeological Science xxx (2010) 1–6)
t
commissioned by northern Italian nobility during the last decades of the 14th
century.
How one wants to make a carrot puree. One takes carrots. And boils them in
water and rolled (to remove the skin) in cold water. And chopped small.
And add it then in a thick almond milk, and the almond milk was well made
with wine. And the carrots boiled therein. And add thereto herbs enough.
And colour it with violet flowers and give out.
From http://daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html
"Garroites sont racines rouges que l'en vent ès Halles par pongnées, et
chascune pongnée un blanc."Garroites -
Image from http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k831118.r=menagier.langFR pages
244-245
Take rote of persel, of pasternak, of rafens, scrape hem and waische hem
clene. Take rapes and caboches, ypared and icorue. Take an erthen panne
with clene water & set it on the fire; cast alle thise therinne. Whan they
buth boiled cast thereto peeres, & perboile hem wel. Take all thise
thynges up and lat it kele on a faire cloth. Do thereto salt; whan it is
colde, do hit in a vessel; take vyneger & powdour & safroun & & do
thereto, & lat alle thise thynges lye therein al nyght, other al day. Take
wyne greke and hony, clarified togider; take lumbarde mustard & raisouns
coraunce, al hoole, & trynde powdour of canel, powdour douce & aneys hole,
& fenell seed. Take alle thise thynges & cast togyder in a pot of erthe, &
take thereof whan thou wilt & serue forthe.
(Source -
http://www.archive.org/details/twofifteenthcent00austuoft)
The book's first recipe is for 'hare in wortes'.
This manuscript, entitled A Boke of Kokery, was written around 1440, and
contains 182 recipes.
Copy of script here.
Description: One plant, bottom, "pastinaca silvatice" probably (family
Umbelliferae) Pastinaca sp. (often Parsnip, sometimes carrot) has three major
stems bearing odd-pinnate compound leaves with triangular dentate leaflets and
terminating in umbels of flowers or seeds.
(From De Honesta Voluptate (On Honest Indulgence
and Good Health), Bartolomeo Platina,
- On Right Pleasure and Good Health; Platina 1475, from the Milham
translation).
"Cariota -
Roast carrots in the coals, then peel them, cleaning off the
ashes, and cut them up. Put in a dish with oil, vinegar and a bit of wine;
scatter a few mild herbs on the top.
Carrot is seasoned in the same way as parsnip, but it is considered sweeter if
cooked under warm ash and coals. When it is taken out, it should cool a little,
be peeled, scraped entirely free of ash, cut up in bits and transferred in to a
dish. Salt should be added, oil and vinegar sprinkled on, some condensed must or
must added, and sweet spices sprinkled over. There is nothing more pleasant to
eat than this. It is good for people in two respects, for it represses bile and
moves the urine. In other ways it is harmful, as it is for liver, stomach, and
spleen."
Jazariyyah p. 18 – A 15th C Eastern Islamic Cookbook - Meat is boiled
with a little water. Carrots, garlic cloves and peeled onions are put with
it, then crushed garlic is put with it. Some people put spinach with it
also; some make it without spinach. Walnuts and parsley are put in. 2 lb
meat (lamb) 4 very small onions (5 oz) 1/4 c walnuts [1/2 t pepper] 4
carrots (1 lb) 2 cloves crushed garlic 1/4 c parsley [3/4 t coriander] 6
whole garlic cloves (~ .6 oz) 2 c spinach = 5 oz [1 t cinnamon] [3/4 t
salt] Cut the lamb up small and put it in 1 1/2 c water with cinnamon,
pepper, coriander and salt. Simmer 10 minutes. Add carrots cut up, whole
garlic cloves, and small onions. Simmer 10 minutes. Add crushed garlic.
Simmer 20 minutes. Add spinach. Simmer 10 minutes. Garnish with walnuts
and parsley.
Pastinaca Wildmoren - Wild Carrot
Pastinaca Domesticus Moren - Domestic Carrot
Daucus Creticus fogelnest - Cretan Carrot Bird's Nest
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