The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s)
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David Tomíček
Abstract
Natural substances with extraordinary properties, used, among others, in medicine, have stimulated Europeans’ interest in exotic countries for centuries. The market for these commodities had acquired a kind of global character as early as antiquity. This study examines the discourse on pepper, bezoar, and other substances from distant lands in the Bohemian sources of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The first part of the study focuses on the Czech translation of Mandeville’s Travels, repeatedly published in print during the sixteenth century. This narrative of the marvels of distant lands can thus be seen as a work that petrified the medieval image of India and other countries of the East in the Czech society at a time when reports of the discoveries of Portuguese and Spanish navigators or of new routes of commercial communication had become available. Among the sources studied, the treatises which primarily reflect this altered image of the world are the voluminous Bohemian Cosmography and the Czech translation of Mattioli’s Herbal from the early second half of the sixteenth century. The aim of the study is to analyze the changes in the knowledge of exotic substances and the reflection of the transformations that took place in long-distance trade at the beginning of the early modern period in the Bohemian sources. On the basis of this analysis, I will try to answer the question as to what extent and in what ways the picture of the world in the various sources from the mid-sixteenth century is new compared to that in the late medieval sources.
Abstract
Natural substances with extraordinary properties, used, among others, in medicine, have stimulated Europeans’ interest in exotic countries for centuries. The market for these commodities had acquired a kind of global character as early as antiquity. This study examines the discourse on pepper, bezoar, and other substances from distant lands in the Bohemian sources of the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. The first part of the study focuses on the Czech translation of Mandeville’s Travels, repeatedly published in print during the sixteenth century. This narrative of the marvels of distant lands can thus be seen as a work that petrified the medieval image of India and other countries of the East in the Czech society at a time when reports of the discoveries of Portuguese and Spanish navigators or of new routes of commercial communication had become available. Among the sources studied, the treatises which primarily reflect this altered image of the world are the voluminous Bohemian Cosmography and the Czech translation of Mattioli’s Herbal from the early second half of the sixteenth century. The aim of the study is to analyze the changes in the knowledge of exotic substances and the reflection of the transformations that took place in long-distance trade at the beginning of the early modern period in the Bohemian sources. On the basis of this analysis, I will try to answer the question as to what extent and in what ways the picture of the world in the various sources from the mid-sixteenth century is new compared to that in the late medieval sources.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
