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Darrera modificació: 2014-05-14
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Freedman, Paul, Out of the East: spices and the medieval imagination, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2008, x + 275 pp., il.
- Resum
- 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.
Contents:
* Preface ix
* Introduction: Spices, A Global Commodity 1
* Spices and Medieval Cuisine 19
* Medicine: Spices as Drugs 50
* The Odors of Paradise 76
* Trade and Prices 104
* Scarcity, Abundance, and Profit 130
* “That Damned Pepper”: Spices and Moral Danger 146
* Searching for the Realms of Spices 164
* Finding the Realms of Spices: Portugal and Spain 193
* Conclusion: The Rise and Fall of Spices 215
- Matèries
- Alimentació
Medicina - Farmacologia
Cuina i confiteria
Història de la cultura
- Notes
- Informació de l'editor
Trad. esp.: Lo que vino de Oriente: las especias y la imaginación medieval, València, Universitat de València, 2010.
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