For instance, try translating muschio with google and your first hit will be moss. And no, moss was not added as a scrub, what was actually added was the scent musk, which makes so much more sense as this is a book of perfumery.
Same with fate poluere - when put into google translate that comes up as fairies dust... and would we really think the Renaissance Italians caught fairies, dried them, ground them up, and made such good soap Mona Lisa literally seems to glow? I'd like to, though it does seem more likely it is only an older way of spelling fare polvere which means to make into dust, and makes a lot more sense considering the rest of the recipe...
So what about the botanical garofani? When looked up in my 1611 middle Italian to middle English dictionary the translation given is both cloves (Syzygium aromaticum) and gillyflower, also called carnation (Dianthus caryphyllus). My curiosity was peaked, but no matter where I looked I could not find a conclusive period source for either interpretation. I also checked gillyflower in the Encyclopedia Brittanica where another alternate name for carnation is given as clove pink and even though it mentions that gillyflower can be any of several flowering plants, the spice clove is not listed among them. And if they are different, then how can garofani mean both?
When I found a translation of a perfumed water recipe from the same time frame, garofani was translated to cloves :
A guerire una persona a chi puzzasse la bocca o vero el fiato.
Piglia 1 onca garofani, 5 onca cinamomo fino, 5 onca tirats, con un terzo de finissimo vino fa pistare et fa bollire et danne mezzo bichieri per volta.
To heal a person who has horrible breath.
Take 1 ounce cloves, 5 ounces ground cinnamon, 5 ounces tirats (sic), and mix with a third of finest wine, then do grind and boil it and take a dose of half a glass at a time.
From Caterina Sforza's Gli Experimenti, a Translation by Gigi Coulson; based on Caterina Sforza Volume, I, II & III by Pier Desiderio Passolini (1893 edition, available on books.google).
When I received my new brewing book A Sip through Time; A collection of old brewing recipes by Cindy Renfrow by mail and opened it up randomly, I found the following:
An alternate name of gillyflower is clove gillyflower of the family Caryophilli. Maybe through confusing nomenclature it became a case of mistaken identity? Let's look around some more... And then, by way of a Middle Dutch internet translator I located the meaning of the word groffelsnavelpoeder, an ingredient in a soap recipe of a Dutch Book of Secrets. Here, at first glance, yes, groffelsnavel, garofano, girofre and a number of other alternates all lead back to gillyflower.
Then came the kicker: "The word was also (including in the Roman Languages) used for the clove (Caryophyllus aromaticus)." -1892 In our modern times the Latin name for cloves is Syzygium aromaticum, but in history the Latin name for cloves was Caryophyllus aromaticus - very similar to the Latin for gillyflower which is Dianthus caryphyllus, and indicates both are part of the family Caryophilli. In history cloves and carnations were classified as belonging to the same family! They were likely assumed to have similar properties, used interchangeably, and it's up to context - and you! - to decide whether it is the one, or the other...
Example recipes:
For Clarre. Take cloues and gilofre quibible, and mac? canll' gygner and spiguale off an in poudre and temper hem with good wyne and the iij. parte as much of fyn honi that is clarified and streine hem thorough a cloth and doo it into a clene vessel, and it may be made wyth ale &c?.
For Clare.
Take cloves and gillyflower quibible [could be qui belle, or very beautiful], and mac? canll' [much candied?] ginger and spiguale off [spigot, or drain off?] and in powder, and mix them with good wine and the iij. part as much of fine honey that is clarified and strain them through a cloth and do it in a clean vessel, and it may be made with ale, etc.
From The Customs of London: Otherwise Called Arnold's Chronicle, 1503 by Richard Arnold; Francis Douce, London 1811; © Translation by Susan Verberg, 2016
As in this recipe cloves are listed separately by name, and gillyflower is likely described as beautiful, my guess is that Dianthus caryphyllus is meant here.
133. Om seepe girofflat te maken.
Neemt
een pont seepen, set die te weeken in rooswater drie dagen in de sonne; ende
als ghi v seepe maken wilt, neemt een vnce ende een half groffelsnagelen wel
gestooten, ende die helft van die selue nagelen sult ghi in v seepe doen, ende dat
seer wel mengelende. Met dander helft doet dat hierna volcht. Neemt
een cleyn potken met rooswater, ende doeghet ouer 't vier sieden, ende alst beginnen
sal te sieden, doeter die reste van dat groffelsnagelpoeder inne, ende neemt
den pot van dat vier, ende decten seer wel tot dat die bobbelen ghecesseert zijn,
ende dattet water law geworden si, dan roeret met een houtken, ende also roerende,
mengelet met v seepe. Ende is
't dat ghijer een luttel beniuyn toe doen wilt, ghi moeget doen, ooc sult ghi v seepe
in een busse doen, ende si sal goede ruecke aennemen.
133. To make gillyflower soap. Take a pound of soap, put it to soak in rosewater three days in the sun, and if you want to make soap, take an ounce and a half gillyflowers well crushed, and half of these same nagelen should you put into the soap, and mix very well. With the other half you do as follows. Take a clean pot with rosewater, and cook it over the fire, and when it starts to boil, add the rest of the gillyflower powder, and take the pot off the fire, and cover it well until the bubbles seized, and that the water is luke warm, then stir with wood, and also stir, mixing with the soap. And if you would like add a little benzoin, which you should do, also you should put the soap in a container, and it shall take on a good scent.
From Dat batement van recepten. Een secreetboek uit de zestiende eeuw
(ed. Willy L. Braekman). © Translation by Susan Verberg, 2016
In this case the giroflatt (alternate of girofle) is also mentioned as nagelen, an adverb sometimes used in modern Dutch for kruidnagelen ("herb-nails"). Kruidnagelen specifically means the spice cloves therefor in this case I would be confident to say here giroflatt means the spice cloves.
To make clove gillyflower wine.
Take six gallons and a half of spring water, and twlve pounds of sugar, and when it boils skim it, putting in the white of eight eggs, and a pint of cold water, to make the scum rise: let it boil for an hour and a half, skimming it well; then pour it into an earthen vessel, with three spoonfulls of baum; then put in a bushel of clove-gillyflower clip'd and beat, stir them well together, and the next day pit six ounces of syrup of citron into it, the third day put in three lemons sliced, peel and all, the fourth day tun it up, stop it close for ten days, then bottle it, and put a piece of sugar in each bottle.
From The Housekeeper's Pocket Book by Sarah Harrison, 1739; as reprinted in A Sip Through Time by Cindy Renfrow, p.154.
In this instance it is clear from context as a weedy herb is used, it is not describing the dry spice cloves, but te fresh state of carnations.
My conclusion: from the handful of brewing recipes I found using gillyflowers, most seem to indicate using carnation, either as a fresh or dried herb. Most of the perfumed cosmetics seem to use cloves, as a powdered or crushed ingredient. It seems to make sense that if powdered or crushed gillyflower is called for it is likely to mean cloves, and if fresh or dried gillyflower is called for it is likely to mean carnation. Mystery solved!
REFERENCES
More on the word groffelsnavel (Dutch) or garofano:
Wat de afleiding aangaat hetzelfde woord als fr. girofle, sp. girofle, -fre, venet. garofolo, ital. garofano enz. (zie , Latein-Roman. Wtb. n°. 1699), ontstaan uit gr. καρυᬫφυλλον. Een ouder vorm nevens het meer voorkomende genoffel, jenoffel, karnoffel. Gewestelijke benaming, in Belgisch Brabant voor Dianthus Caryophyllus L., den anjelier, fr. œillet girofle (in Belg. Limburg ook groffiaat geheeten), maar elders in Zuid-Nederland (nevens groffelier) voor den violier (Cheirianthus, fr. girofléc); zie [1865-1870] en [1892]. Het woord werd ook (en zulks evenzeer in de Romaansche talen) toegepast op den kruidnagel (Caryophyllus aromaticus); zie daarover omstandiger bij GENOFFEL en verg. GROFFELSNAGEL.
Historische Woordenboeken op Internet (Historic Dictionaries on Internet).
http://gtb.inl.nl/?owner=MNW
http://gtb.inl.nl/iWDB/search?actie=article&wdb=WNT&id=M022121.re.2&lemma=groffelsnagel
More on the gilliflower from the Encyclopedia Brittanica:
Gillyflower, also spelled gilliflower, can be any of several scented flowering plants, especially the carnation, or clove pink (Dianthus caryophyllus), stock (Matthiola incana), and wallflower (Cheiranthus cheiri). However, the gillyflower of Chaucer, Spenser, and Shakespeare was the carnation. Other plants that are types of gillyflower are dame’s gillyflower, also known as dame’s violet (Hesperis matronalis); mock gillyflower, also known as soapwort or bouncing bet (Saponaria officinalis); feathered gillyflower, also known as the grass or garden pink (Dianthus plumarius); and sea gillyflower, also known as the thrift or sea pink (Armeria maritima).
https://www.britannica.com/plant/gillyflower
The Florio 1611 Dictionary Search:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/search.cgi
A link to Volume II of Caterina Sforza, to give you a place to start:
https://books.google.com/books?id=aD9WAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=caterina+sforza&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi5o9axxMvOAhVB6mMKHTsUCLIQ6AEIQTAF#v=onepage&q=caterina%20sforza&f=false
No comments:
Post a Comment