Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l. The Social Politics of Pre-Linnaean Botanical Classification Author(s): Allen J. Grieco Source: I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance, Vol. 4 (1991), pp. 131-149 Published by: Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l. and Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4603673 Accessed: 04/03/2009 12:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=celso. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Casa Editrice Leo S. Olschki s.r.l. and Villa I Tatti, The Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance. http://www.jstor.org THE SOCIALPOLITICS OF PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION ALLEN J. GRIECO oftenmentioned in the statutesof Italian Tegetablegardens, function in providing for cities,ful filleda vitallyimportant theneedsof a societywherefaminewasa relatively constant phenomenon. littlehasbeenwrittenconcerning Although latemedievalandearlyRenaissance it is nowknownthat vegetable gardens,' theyoccupied largetractsof landbothinsideandoutsidethe citiesof thepast.Theproduce of thesegardens wasrelatively cheap andabundant, andthus,fora primarily economic reason, vegetables hada prominent placein thepoorman'sdietin WesternEurope fromthe 14thto the 16thcenturies. Yetvegetable dietsandpovertywerefelt to be intimately linkedto eachotherbeyondquestionsof economic FromBoccaccio necessity. on, the authorsof novelleidentifyboththeurbanpoorandthepeasantry by calling themonioneaters,favabeaneaters,garliceaters,andothersuch epithets. Thiskindof attitudeallowsthenovelleauthors to make useof foodasa satirical devicewherethemeremention of certain classifies theeateronceandforall.2 vegetables Oneof Sabadino novelle(contained degliArienti's in his collectionof stories,Le Porretane, probably composed in 1492), showsus the "emblematic" use thatcouldbe madeof a typical poorman'sfood:garlic.In thisstorya valetaskshis princeto knighthim.Hismaster patiently thatthisis quiteimposexplains sibledueto thelowlysocialoriginsof valets,but,sincethevalet tT V 1 See H. BREsc, "Les jardins de Palerme (1290-1460)",Melanges de l'Ecole Franqaisede Rome- TempsModernes,84 (1), 1972, pp. 55-127; and A. CORTONESI, II Lavoro del contadino: uomini, tecniche, colture nella Tuscia tardomedievale, Bologna, 1988, pp. 3-48. 2 Concerningthe use of literarytexts as a sourcefor historians,see P. SALWA, "Fictione realta:novella come fonte storica",I Tatti Studies, 1, 1985, pp. 189-205. 131 ALLEN J. GRIECO refusesto understand his reasoning, the princedecidesto ridicule himby orderinga coatof armssuitableto the occasion.The result is as follows: ... on an azurebackgroundthere was a hand sprinklingsalt on a head of garlic... above the shield there was a sun that made the azure backgroundmoresolemnand,in the placeof the crestedhelm, therewas a verybeautifulwoman,representingVirtue,holdingher nose and covering her mouthto show that she was disgustedby the smell of garlic.3 Beyondthe obviousoppositionbetweenvirtueandthe lackof virtue(theyoungwomanandthe headof garlic),thiscoatof arms containsanothercodedmessage.Its iconography alludesto the cosmic and unchanging order of things. On the one hand there are the nobleelements:air (the azurebackground) and fire (the sun) which, of course, fit perfectly in the world of the nobility and consequently in a coat of arms. Yet the valet's coat of arms also contains a less noble element: earth (symbolized by the garlic), which represents his intrusion into the harmony of the upper spheres. A few pages later Sabadino degli Arienti points out - for the benefit of all those who might not have caught this rather esoteric joke - that "garlic is always food for peasants, and this even when it is sometimes artificiallycivilized by inserting it into roasted geese".4 The link between vegetables and the lower social orders is always highly evident, to the extent that it sometimes constitutes a quasi-symbioticrelationship.Doctors, dieticians, and the authors of novelle are often guilty of a significantinversion when they affirm that the great quantities of vegetables eaten by the poor are the result of a physiological necessity rather than a diet imposed on them for economic reasons. A rather tardy and ironic example of such an inversion can be found in the tragi-comicstory of Bertoldo, 3 "II principe adunque, factose secretamentepignere, in uno bello scudo, in campo de finissimo azuro, una mano che salava uno capo d'aglio in uno saliero e, desopra il scudo, uno sole che solenizavatutto il campo azuro, e per cimiero una bellisimadamisella,in luoco de la virtute, che si chiudevail naso e strengeva la boca, dimostrandoessere forte offesa da l'odore de l'aglio". SABADINO DEGLI ARIENTI, Le Porretane,ed. B. BASILE, Rome, 1981, p. 241. 4 Ibid., p. 243: "... l'aglio che sempree cibo rusticano,quantunquea le volte artificiosamentecivile se faza ponendosenel corpo de Ii arostiti pavari...2. 132 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION a peasantfromthe mountains, who diedat Courtbecausehe was notgiventheproperfoodto keephimin health.Theauthorof this popular tale, Giulio Cesare Croce (1550-1609), explains the predicament of his hero in what amounts to a parody of a literary and medical tradition that was still very much alive. The problem was quite simply that: The doctors,not knowinghis complexion,gave him remediesthat would have been suitablefor the gentlemenand knightsof the court. He (Bertoldo),who knew his own nature, asked that they bring him a pot of fava beans with some onions and some turnipscooked in the ashes of the fire. He knew that with such food he would be cured.5 Unfortunately the doctors did not understand this constitutional need and Bertoldo died. As a consequence,the epitaph on his tombstone stresses, with great economy of means, the idea that diet and social class are closely linked and that this link has an ineluctable quality, the disregardof which entails its own punishment: He diedpainfullybecausehe was not givenanyturnipsandfavabeans, He who is used to turnipsmust not eat mearpies, He who is used to a hoe must not take a spearin his hand, He who is used to the fields must not go and live at Court.6 Fruit, on the other hand, was eaten by and associated with a completely different social milieu. Doctors, dieticians, and agronomists never failed to speak of the deleterious effects fruit had on those who ate it. It was common knowledge that fruit was supposed to be unhealthy. During outbreaks of the plague, health authoritieseven forbade the importingof fruit, since it was thought 5 "I medici non conoscendola sua complessionegli facevanoi rimedi che si fanno alli gentiluominie cavalieridi corte; ma esso, che conoscevala sua natura teneva domandatoa quelli ch'gli portasserouna pentola di fagiuoli con la cipolla dentro e delle rape cotte sotto la cenere, perche sapeva lui che con tali cibi saria guarito..." GIULIOCESARECROCE,Le Sottilissimeastuzie di Bertolo, ed. G. DosSENA, Milan, 1984, p. 114. 6 Ibid., pp. 114-115: "Morlcon aspri duoli. Per non poter mangiarrape e fagiuoli. Chi e uso alle rape non vada ai pasticci. Chi e uso alla zappanon pigli la lancia. Chi e uso al campo non vada alla corte". 133 ALLEN J. GRIECO that it paved the way for sickness.7However, this negative aura did not seem to impress the wealthier segments of the population for whom fruit was a recently acquired luxury item and whose tastes probably explain the intensive cultivation of fruit trees in central and northern Italy from the end of the 13th century. The exceptionally high prices attained by fruit, especially when it came from afar or when it was out of season, can leave no doubt as to its desirability both as a foodstuff and as a status symbol.8 As with vegetables, doctors and novelle authors tended to confuse fruit with the social classes that ate such fare. In fact, variations on a story illustrating the social and alimentarytransgression perpetrated by a peasant who dares to eat fruit can be found in practically all the novelle collections of the 14th and 15th centuries. The example I would like to give is again from the Porretane of Sabadino degli Arienti rather than one from another author because it is particularlyexplicit and also because it introduces the idea behind the title to this article.9According to the story, a peasant repeatedlysteals peaches from the garden of a rich land owner. When the land owner finally catches the thief, he does not speak of the monetary value of what has been stolen. The comment he makes is essentially based on reaffirmingclass differences. Thus he says to the peasant: Next time leave the fruit for people like me and eat the fruit of 7 "Tutte le frutta nocive vietarono a entrare nella citta come susine acerbe, mandorlein erba, fave fresche, fichi, e ogni frutta non utile e non sana", MARCHIONNEDI CoPPo STEFANI, Cronica Fiorentina, ed. N. RoDOLICO,Citta di Castello, 1903, RR.II.SS., 30,1, T. XXX,fasc. 4, P. 1, rub. 634, p. 231. 8 With respect to the little known history of fruit and its prices in the late Middle Ages, see A. J. GRIECO, "Classes sociales, nourritureet imaginaire alimentaireen Italie (XIVe-XVesiecle)",Doctorat 3e cycle, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en SciencesSociales (Paris), 1987, ch. 4 to be published as Food for Thought and Food for the Table (provisionaltitle), Cambridge,Polity Press, 1992. See also the more accessibleA. J. GRIECO, "Savoirde poete ou savoir de botaniste? Les fruits dans la poesie italienne du XVe siecle", Medie'vales16-17, 1989, pp. 131-146; and idem, "Les utilisations sociales des fruits et legumes dans l'Italie medievale", in D. MEILLER- P. VANNIER (eds.), Le Grand Livre des Fruits et Legumes: histoire, culture et usage, Paris, 1991, pp. 150-154. 9 Other examplesof this topos may be found in G. SERCAMBI, Novelle, ed. G. SINICROPI,Bari, 1972, tale CXXXVIIII,p. 632; and F. SACCHETTI,Il Trecentonovelle, ed. E. FACCIOLI, Turin, 1972, tales LXXXIXand XCI, pp. 241-243 and pp. 246-249. 134 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION the people like you, in other words: turnips,garlic,leeks, onions, and shalotswith sorghumbread.'0 The idea that the rich were meant to eat fruit from trees while the poor were meant to eat vegetables, a fruit of the earth, may seem more or less senseless to us, but in the 14th and 15th centuries this idea did not seem at all arbitrary.In fact, this dichotomy was connected to a well-defined conception of the hierarchicalorder of things. According to the world view current at this time, there existed a series of analogies between the world of plants and the world of human beings. God had created the world of plants according to the same laws which governed human society, both being structuredby a vertical and hierarchicalprinciple that ordered the entire universe. This order of things was usually described as a kind of ladder or chain along which all of creationwas distributed in a divinely preordainedorder."1 Restoro d'Arezzo's cosmographicaltreatise, La Composizione del mondo colle sue cascioni (composed in 1282), compared and juxtaposedthe order of nature to the order of society just as many authorshad done before him. He remindedhis readersof the wellknown analogies between the human body and nature (microcosm and macrocosm)whereby "the flesh" (of humanbeings) is compared "to the earth, the soft stones to cartilage,the hard stones to bones, the blood flowing in our veins to the water flowing in the earth's 10 "Un'altravolta lassa stare le fructe de li mei pari e mangiadelle tue che sono le rape,gli agli, porri,cepolle e le scalognecol pan di sorgo".SABADINO DEGLI ARIENTI, op. cit. (see note 3), p. 332. 11 Curiouslyenough, the authorswho examinedthe Great Chain of Being did not, to my knowledge, notice the parallelism between the order of nature and the order of society, even though E. DURKHEIMand M. MAUSS, 'De quelques formes primitivesde classification:contributionl'atude a des repr6sentationscollectives", I'Anneesociologique,6, 1901-1902 (but really 1903) had alreadydrawn attention to it. The classicalstudy is, of course, A. 0. LovEjoY,The Great Chain of Being, Cambridge(Mass.), 1936. See also the somewhatmore descriptivebook by E. M. W. TILLYARD,The ElizabethanWorld Picture, London, 1943, repr. ed. Harmondsworth,1963, and the more analytical and complete article by E. P. MAHONEY, 'MetaphysicalFoundationsof the Hierarchyof Being Accordingto Some Late-Medieval and Renaissance Philosophers",in P. MOREWEDGE (ed.), Philosophies of Existence Ancient and Medieval, New York, 1982 (I am grateful to James Hankinsfor this reference). 135 ALLENJ. GRIECO body, and the hairs (of the human body) to plants".2 However, beyond these well-known analogies,Restoro also drew another kind of parallelbetween nature and society. Accordingto him, both were informed by the same vertical ordering-principleaccordingto which the higher a man or a plant was situated on the "Great Chain of Being", the more noble and more perfect they were. And, like Restoro, many authors - at least through the 16th century - felt that nature and society were so closely linked to each other that it could be said that society had a "natural"order and nature had a "social" order. One of the outcomes of the mirror effect which united these two worlds was the development of a kind of parallellismwhereby the upper strata of society were considered "naturally"destined to eat foods belonging to the upper reaches of the world of nature. It would take too long to trace here the development of this parallelism between nature and culture from the end of the 13th to the end of the 16th century.13Let it suffice, for the time being, to say that there seems to have been a steady development of this idea in the period under review. For Restoro the comparison was still somewhat lopsided. On the one hand, he perceived nature as being highly stratified, whereas, on the other hand, he described a social body that could be subdivided into only two separategroups (those who think and those who labour).14By the 16th century, however, the terms of comparisonseemed to be more balanced, since the perception of society had become far more complex and stratified."5 The idea that the produce of nature was not all the same (since 12 RESTORO D'ARE=O,La Composizionedel mondo colle sue cascioni, ed. A. MORINO,Florence, 1976, p. 35. 13 For a somewhat more detailed analysissee A. J. GRIECO,"The Social Order of Nature and the NaturalOrder of Society in late 13th-early14th CenturyItaly", MiscellaneaMediaevalia,21/2, Berlin-NewYork, 1992, pp. 898-907. 14 RESTORO D'AREZO,op. cit. (see note 12), p. 36. Accordingto G. F. JONES, "The Functionof Food in GermanLiterature",Speculum,35 (1), 1960, pp. 78-86, a very similar bipartite image of society seems to underlie German literature of the 13th century even though the categorieshe names - nobility and peasantryare different. 15 An excellent exampleof how 16th-centurywriters perceivedthe complexity of social stratificationmay be seen in TOMMASOGARZONI DA BAGNOCAVALLO, La Piazza universaledi tutte le prolessioni del mondo e nobili ed ignobili..., Venice, Gio. B. Somascho,1586. 136 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION ordered)and that specificplantswere assoit was hierarchically ciatedwith specificsectorsof societythus becameincreasingly of a cosmological given the importance plausible.Furthermore, orderin both societyandthe plantworld,it is hardlysurprising treatiseson nobilityalwaysdedicateat leastone that 16th-century chapterto the touchyproblemof a correctdietfor this socialelite. In 16-century for example,treatiseson France,Spain,andItaly,"6 medicalliteratureand even go so far nobilityechocontemporary noblewomen. Since"food as to prescribe a specificdietforpregnant endsup modifyingthe bodyandthe behaviourof thosewho eat diet couldevenimpairthe nobilityof a improper it ,7 a mother's childbeforeit was born. Thequestionwhicharisesat thispointis howdidpeoplechoose foods? What were the rules and criteriafor a "appropriate" "proper" diet?Andwhatwas the codethatgave,simultaneously, Thesequesa dietaryanda socialmeaningto fruitandvegetables? unlesswe examinetheclassification system tionscannotbe answered thatthe 14thand15thcenturies imposedon theworldof plants. Someelementsof medievalplantclassification In the MiddleAges, and for a long time thereafter,it was thoughtthat the plantworldwas part of the continuouschain whichconnectedthe worldof inanimate objects- situatedat the bottomof theGreatChainof Being to theanimalworld,whichwas situatedabovethe plantworld.At the bottomof the plantworld, whereit cameinto contactwith the worldof inanimatethings, placeda kind of plant Restorod'Arezzoand his contemporaries thathe described as partstoneandpartplant.He calledthisplant "stonemoss"(it was probablynothingmorethanlichen).At the otherendof theplantworld- afterclimbingup all of the various rungsof the Chainof Being- were to be foundplantsendowed 16 Concerning16th-centurytreatiseson nobility, see J. A. MARAVALL, Potere, onore, elites nella Spagna del secolo d'oro, trans. M. L. Nasali- Rocca di Corneliano, Bologna, 1984; A. JOUANNA, Mythes et hierarchiesdans la France du XVIe siecle, Paris, 1977. 17 JOUANNA, op. cit. (see note 16), p. 24. 137 ALLENJ. GRIECO with animalqualities.In this groupof plantsRestoroplacedwhat he called"erbaviva"(actuallysponge,as we findout later)which is characterized by the fact that, "whenyou touchit, it feels this andfleesandshrinksintoitself".8 In otherwords,at thebottomof theladderhe placeda plantthathadstone-likequalitieswhereasat the top he placeda plantwith animal-like qualities.All the plants whilerespectcouldbeplacedbetweenthesetwoextremes of creation orderin whicheachplantwas inghowever,anascending/descending thoughtto be noblerthanthe precedingone but less noblethan the followingone. No two plantscouldhavethe samedegreeof nobility. to the classification of We mustnow turn,morespecifically, with plantswithinthe extremesjust indicated.Beforeproceeding andclassifithis taskit shouldbe pointedout thatplantcategories cationsystemsexisted,of course,longbeforeLinnaeusintroduced themodernsystematic orderthatis stillin use. However,medieval is (and to a certainextenteven Renaissance) plant classification best studiedby historiansin muchthe sameway thatethnologists In fact,the pre-Linnaean botanicalclassification. studynon-western classificatory system(like those systemsstudiedby the ethnofromthe "scientific" botanists)can be distinguished systemconstructedby the greatSwedishbotanistby the factthatit relieson implicitcategories.It is for this reasonthat ethnobotanistsspeak of "covert or implicit categories", which are responsible for the of a givenpeople'sbotanicalknowledge."9 structuring Let us now tryto isolatesomeof theseimplicitcategories in thebotanical system of latemedievalandearlyRenaissance Europe. 18 RESTOROD'AREZZO, op. cit. (see note 12), p. 35. 19The ethnobotanicalliterature produced in the last thirty-forty years in the wake of A. G. HAUDRICOURT- L. HEDIN, L'Homme et les plantes cultivees, Paris, 1943; repr. ed. Paris, 1987 - H. C. CONCKLIN,"The Relation of Hanunoo Culture to the Plant Word", Ph. D. dissertation,Yale University, 1954, is truly staggering.For a well informedand useful guide to the conceptsand a bibliography of available studies see G. R. CARDONA,La Foresta di piume: manuale di etnoscienza, Rome/Bari, 1985, above all ch. 7. See also B. BERLIN- D. E. BREEDLOVEP. H. RAVEN, 'Covert Categoriesand Folk Taxonomies",AmericanAnthropologist, 70, 1968, pp. 290-299. 138 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION * * * Whoeverdecidesto writea historyof botanybeginningwith theMiddleAges(andthisis a taskthat,to myknowledge, hasnot been undertaken) mightbeginhis searchfor pre-Linnaean plant in theworkof thegreatestof medievalbotanists:Albert categories the Great.A carefulanalysisof his treatiseDe vegetabilibus libri VII 2 showsthathe breaksthe plantworlddowninto six distinct categories: 1. tree(arbor): allwoodyplantswitha singletrunkfromtheirroots. 2. arborescent shrub(frutexmagnus). 3. shrub(arbustum): woodyplantswithnumerous mainstemsfrom theirroots. 4. bush(frutex):woodyplantswithmanyequalandrelatively slender branches fromthe base. 5. ? vine(rubus):an onlypartially woodyplantwithlongbranches suchas ivyandothertypesof vinesandcreepers. 6. herbaceous plantssubdivided into: a) olus virens or olus includingall those with a leafy stem of considerable size(cabbage, forexample), andb) thosewithallormostof theleavesbeingradical (i.e.without a stemsuchas spinach, forexample). Thisclassification was based,aboveall, on plantmorphology. It will soonbecomeevident,however,thatthesecategories arealso a classification in termsof the "nobility"or "perfection" of the plantsin question. AlbertusMagnus'morphological ordering-principle, inherited fromclassicalantiquity via theworksof Aristotlehe knewso well, was to underliebotanicalclassifications for a verylongtime.Even thegreatbotanistsof the 16thcentury,who areusuallyconsidered to be the fathersof systematic botany,continuedto organisethe plantworldaccording to theconceptof the "GreatChainof Being". For example,Matthiasde L'Obel(MathiasLobelius,1538-1616) andGaspard Bauhin(Casparus Bauhinus,1550-1624),bothbotan'o For the following analysisof plant morphologyin Albert the Great, I owe much to T. A. SPRAGUE, "Plant morphologyin Albertus Magnus",Kew Gardens Bulletin of MiscellaneousInformation,9, 1933, pp. 430-440. 139 ALLEN J. GRIECO istswhocontributed decisivelyto the development of modernplant classification, were convincedthat therewas a generalprinciple underlying the plantworldand that one couldrecognisea "progressionfromthe simplestformsto the morecomplexones" .2"Accordingto thisidea,thesimplestformsof plantlifewerethegrasses, andthe morecomplexformswererepresented by trees. If one turnsto the workof doctorsanddieticians,it soonbecomesobviousthatthey adopteda similarandyet simplifiedverused by Albertthe Great.Accordingto sion of the classification intofivedistinctgroups them,the plantworldcouldbe subdivided The firstgroup,the one whichcontainedthe most or categories. nobleplants,includesall of the trees,shrubs,andbushesthatproducefruit.The secondgroupincludesall of the plantsproducing differenttypesof grains(wheat,rye,millet,etc.).The thirdgroup includesall the differenttypesof herbaceous plantswhoseupper foliageis eaten(parsley,mint,spinach,etc.).The fourthgroupincludesallplantsof whichthe rootsareeaten(turnips,carrots,etc.). The fifthandlast groupis the one thatincludeswhatwas called in medievalItalianagrumi(notto be confusedwith its presentday meaning). Agrumiwereall thoseplantswhichin medievalandRenaissancetastetheorywereconsidered to have an "acrid"taste,' thosewe todaygroupin the categoryof bulbousplants(onions, leek, garlic, shalots).23This simplified classificationused by doctors 21 A. ARBER, Herbals, their Origin and Evolution: a Chapterin the History of Botany (1470-1670), Cambridge,1912; repr. ed. Cambridge,1953, p. 181. The only seriousstudy of pre-Linnaeanbotanicalknowledgethat is readilyavailable,this otherwise commendablebook is tainted by a certain amountof positivist thinking. It is worth pointing out that the progressionfrom "simple"forms of plant life to more "complexones" in Renaissancebotanicaltheory elicited a revealingcomment by A. Arberwhen she remindedher readersthat this antiquatedtheoryhad nothing to do with Darwin's ideas about the evolution of species!! -2 Concerninglate medieval and Renaissancetaste theory, see the regrettably unpublishedthesis of R. PATNI, "L'Assaisonnementdans la cuisine fransaiseentre le XIVe et le XVIe siele", Doctorat 3e cycle, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales,Paris, 1989, esp. pp. 135-164. 23 This classificationmay be found in many of the treatiseson diet from Aldobrandino of Siena up to the end of the 16th century. See, for example, ALDEBRANDIN DE SIENNE, Le Regime du corps, eds. L. LANDOUZY- R. PEPIN, Paris, 1911; repr. ed. Geneva, 1978; GIERONIMo DE' MANFREDI, Libro intitolato il perche', Bologna, 1474; B. PISANELLI, Trattato della natura de cibi et del ber, Venice, 1583. 140 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION on plant anddieticians was,of course,no longerbasedexclusively be guided morphology. Whiledoctorsanddieticianslet themselves dimension by thisprinciple,theyalsoaddeda pragmatic by adoptcriterion.Sucha choiceis not ing theediblepartas a classificatory overlysurprising. It mightbe pointedout that the distinguished 16th-century botanistAndreaCesalpino(1519-1603),who was alsothe seconddirectorof thebotanical gardenat Pisa,tried,with somesuccess,to classifyplantsaccording to theirfruitand/orseeds in his De PlantislibriXVI (Florence,1583).24 Whileeachsystemof classification developed by botanists,doctors, anddieticiansmightseemto be different,all of themwere constructed accordingto a verticalorderingprincipleappliedin whatseemsto us todayto be a surprisingly mechanistic way. All expresstheideathatplantswhichgrowto be tallareendowedwith a particular nobility.Forthis reason,treesandthe fruitthatthey produceare considered to be superior.Conversely, all fruitsthat do not grow high off the ground such as melonsand strawberries- do notenjoysucha superiority andareusuallyconsidered to be vulgar,unhealthy, or evendangerous. Melons: a lowly fruit Having examined some of the more general presuppositions governing the way in which the plant world was thought to be ordered, it is now necessary to examine in detail a specific plant or group of plants in order to understandthe workings of this universal classificatorysystem. The specific example I have chosen is that of a "family"of plants that did not fit easily into the medieval classificatorysystem, namely the different types of melons as well as the entire family of the cucurbits (cucurbitacea),which includes all cucumbers,squashes,gourds, pumpkins, and melons. As we shall see, both the contradictionsand the loop-holes that appear where the classificatorysystem was most problematicalcan tell us a great deal about its fundamentalordering principles. 24 ARBER, op. cit. (see note 21), p. 164. Even JOHNRAY (1627-1705) proposed a classificatoryscheme based on the fruit and leaves of plants (Historiaplantarum generalis, species hactenus editas insuper multas noviter inventas et descriptas complectens,London, 1686-1704, 3 vols.). 141 ALLEN J. GRIECO Thefamilyof thecucurbits poseda problemto the worldorder envisaged bythebotanistsof pre-Linnaean Europe.Thiswasbecause it constituted In fact,all melonsandcucurbitsin genan anomaly. eral occupiedan intermediary positionbetweentwo well-defined groupsof plants.According to AlberttheGreat'sclassification, they are a typicalexampleof the rubus,in itself an intermediary categoryfor whichthe best andyet unsatisfactory translation might sincethe exacttranslation"brambles" is be "vine"or "creeper", hardlyhelpful.In fact, the moreone examinesthis categoryof Albertthe Great,the moreit becomesapparent thatit is a hybrid categoryincludingall those plantsfor which the basic distinc- no longerhold true.5Metions- "woody"and "herbaceous" lons and cucurbitsare neitherwoody nor typicallyherbaceous plants.Whiletheymightbe saidto be rathermoreherbaceous, they doproduce fruit(botanically speaking, succulent fruit),characteristic usuallyassociated withwoodyplants. The tell-talesignsof a classificatory problemwith regardto these plantsappearsin the differentand contradictory ways in whichauthorstried to classifythem.For example,in a famous treatiseon diet composedtowardsthe end of the 13th century, Aldobrandino of Sienaclassifiespumpkins, melons,andcucumbers (all cucurbits) as differenttypesof fruit.' On the otherhand,CorniolodellaCornia- whose14th-century agricoltural treatisehasonly recentlybeenpublished- considersthesesameplantsto be vegetables.'CertainPiedmontese authorsof medievaljuridicaltexts alsochooseto see melonsandthe rest of the cucurbitsfamilyas vegetables,whichchoicesurprisedthe historianwho workedon thesesources.28 If we now turnto five illustratedtacuinasanitatis fromthe end of the 14th century,whichhavebeenpublishedby 25 To a certain extent this "classificatoryunease" can be explained by the fact that creepersare relativelyrare in the temperateareas of the world and thus constitute an apparent anomaly. The populations living in tropical areas where creepers are well representedhave developed classificatorysystems where these plants are fully integrated.CARDONA,op. cit. (see note 19), p. 123. 26 ALDOBRANDINO OF SIENA, op. cit. (see note 23), table of contents p. 260. Z' CORNIOLODELLA CORNIA, La Divina Villa, ed. L. BONELLI CONENNA,Siena, 1982, book 6, esp. pp. 308-310, 317-318, etc. 28 A. M. NADA PATRONE,II Cibo del ricco ed it cibo del povero, Turin, 1981, p. 141. 142 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION Luisa Cogliati Arano, the results are just as discordant. The Ms. Lat. Nouv. Acq. 1673 of the Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, the Ms. 1041 of the Bibliotheque Universitaire of Liege and the Ms. 3054 of the Bibliotheque Municipale of Rouen classify melons and cucurbits as a kind of vegetable, while the Ms. Series Nova 2644 of the Vienna National Library and the Ms. 4182 of the Casanatense in Rome classify these same plants as a kind of link between the domain of fruit and that of vegetables.' (I might add, at this point, that the classificatorydifferencesto be found in these tacuina seem to me to invalidate the hypothesis that they should all be attributed to the same Milanese bottega of Giovannino de' Grassi, as Luisa Cogliati Arano would have it). Yet another solution to this classificatorypuzzle is proposed by the 16th-century dietary treatise of BaldassarrePisanelli. This doctor separates melons from other cucurbits and considers them to be a kind of fruit. He then proceeds to classify the rest (cucumbers, pumpkins, squashes, gourds) as forming a link between fruit and vegetables.' This solution is very close to our present day sensibilities but is, of course, in contradiction to modern botanical classification. These hesitations, and the search for an appropriateplace for this group of plants, is symptomaticof what may be called a classificatory doubt. Ever since Mary Douglas' work on Purity and Danger, we know that animals falling between two categories tend to be seen as a potential source of impurity.3"The rule seems to hold for the plant world as well. Our melons and cucurbits are in exactly the same position, and anyone who has worked on medieval and Renaissancefood knows what a bad and even sinister reputation the fruits of these plants had. Dieticians never failed to point out that a series of precautionshad to be observed in eating them. Known to be extremely cold and humid (second and often third " I have reconstructedthe order in which cucurbits appear in these manuscripts from the useful index in L. COGLIATIARANO,TacuinumSanitatis, Milan, 1979, pp. 141-145. 30 B. PISANELLI, Trattatodella naturade' cibi et del ber, Venice, 1611, repr. edition, Bologna, 1980, pp. 4, 62 and 68. 31 M. DOUGLAS, Purity and Danger.An Analysisof Conceptsof Pollution and Taboo, Harmondsworth,1970, esp. ch. 3. 143 ALLEN J. GRIECO degrees,according to the humoraltheory),theywereto be eaten Froma dieteticpoint of only duringthe hottestsummerdays.32 view,the extremecoldnessof all theseplantsalsorequireda series of correctivemeasuresto makethemless harmful.Basicallythis wasdoneby addingor mixingfoodstuffsthatwere"hot".As JeanLouisFlandrinhas pointedout, someof thesepracticeshavesurvived(saltingmelon,eatingraw hamor figs with melons,etc.).33 A 16th-century flyleafcontaininga facetious"lamentation of the melons"providesa goodexampleof how at leastone of these cucurbitswas viewed.Despairingof their evil reputation,these melonsspeakto the readerandtry to convincehim that the fruit he thinksis bestof allis actuallytheworst,andviceversa: Wewerenotbornin poisonous places suchas strangeandmountainous forests; we werebornin pleasant places, greenmeadows, vegetable gardens, andothersuchplaces; we arethe dignified andbeautiful melons. To whatextentwe arethefriendsof humannaturecanhardlybe told. Allfruitscasta darkshadow; Melonsarebetterthanfigs; We aregood,beautiful, andso delicious Thateveryone wantsto eat us.m Thefactthatthe melonsinsistthattheyarehealthierthanfigs to all doctorsanddieticians,werethe healthiest (which,according fruit), makestheir lamentationalmostsinister:they are sirens playingon the gluttonyandweaknessof humanbeingswho should knowbetter. The doubtfulpositionof cucurbitsin general,and melonsin within the classification particular, systemof late medievaland 32 Out of the many possible examples, see PISANELLI, op. cit. (see note 30), pp. 4, 62 and 68; TOMMASO DEL GARBO, Ordine e reggimento,che si debbe osservarenel tempo di pistolenze..., ed. P. FERRATO,Bologna, 1866, p. 29. 33 J.-L. FLANDRIN,"Medicineet habitudealimentairesanciennes",in J.-C. MARGOLIN- R. SAUZET (eds.), Pratiqueset discoursalimentairesa la Renaissance,Paris, 1982, esp. pp. 89-90. 4 Lamentodi meloni in barcelletta.Et un capitolo in lode de l'uva, n.p. (but probablynorthernItaly), n.d. [16th century], BibliotecaNazionale,Florence, E.6. 6.154.II, n. 24. 144 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION early RenaissanceEurope caused these plants to acquire a curious mythology which surfaces in a variety of ways. To begin with, melons became the symbols of illusory achievements in 16th-century emblem books. According to the most common emblem concerning melons, these plants would grow up a fir tree and thus reach incredible heights without any effort only, as soon as their support was removed, to fall to the ground.35This emblem is very effective in portrayingthe imperfect vertical characteristicsof these plants and creepers in general. Yet more significant is the fact that melons were associated with (and contributedto) the widespreadfame of a mythical being: the vegetable lamb or agnus scythicus, which Louis XI of France was so extremely curious about that he wrote Lorenzo de' Medici in an attempt to acquireone.' The earliest account of this mythical creature (at least in Western Europe) seems to be that of the Franciscantraveller, Odoric of Pordenone (c. 1286-1331). In the course of his voyage to the Orient (begun in 1318) he saw: An animalthe size of a little lamb which was white and whose wool was like cotton... I askedwhat this was and was told that there is a mountaincalledCaspeoson which grow large sized melons. When they are ripe they open up and out comes this animal.. In its own way, the mythical story of the vegetable lamb confirms the doubtful position of melons in the medieval classification system. One might even add that phenomena like the vegetable lamb could materialize only where classificatorysystems left the door open to what one might call "logical" marvels. In fact, in all such hinge locations of the taxonomic order (i.e. areas between 35 See A. HENCKEL- A. SCHONE, Emblemata.Handbuchzur Sinnbildkunstdes XVI und XVII Jahrhunderts,Stuttgart,1967, cols. 331-332. 36 J. HuIZINGA,The Waning of the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth,1968 (first edition 1924), p. 181. 37 "... una bestiola grandecomo un agnelecto, la quale era biancae la lana era proprio como un bambagio... Io adomandaiche cosa era questa: me fu resposto ... affermandome e giurandomech'el e uno monte che se chiamaCaspeosnel quale nasce peponi grandi,e quando sonno maturi se apronoet esscene fora questa bestiola". For lack of better editions I have used ODORICHUS, De rebus incognitis: Odoricoda Pordenonenella primaedizionea stampadel 1513, ed. L. MONACO - G. C. TESTA,Pordenone,1986, p. 88. 10 145 ALLEN J. GRIECO two categories), appeared new "marvels" whichcaughtthe fantasy of the scientificand lay publicof late medievaland Renaissance Europe. Anothersuchmarvel,evenbetterknownin late medievaland Renaissance Europethan the vegetablelamb, was the barnacle goose.Thereproductive phaseof thisgoose(Brantaleucopsis)takes a kindof enigma placein thearcticandthusmighthaveconstituted whichwas explainedin two differentways.According to the first theory,this birdbeganits life as a barnacleandwhenit reached maturityleft the sea to becomea bird. Accordingto the other theory,it beganlife as a fruitthatfell intothe sea,in timebecame a barnacleandthen,finally,in its last stage,becamea bird.' The mythmusthavebeenwidelybelieved,sincethebarnacle goosewas eatenduringLentin variouspartsof Northern Europewhereit was considered a kindof fish. Thehighandthe low of the plantworld Thevaluesattributed to the hierarchy of the plantworldwere, of course,basedon the presupposition that plantsat the top of theladderwerecloserto Godandthoseat thebottomwerefarther away.Thisprinciple,wherebyhigh = goodandlow = bad,is at leastpartiallyresponsible for the fact thatherbaceous plantswere considered less noblethanfruit trees.Edibleroots that actually grewinto the groundwere,in turn,considered morevulgarthan herbaceous plants. This code,whichstructured and gave meaningto the visible world,can be detectedin manydifferentsources.All dieticians went out of theirway to remindtheirreadersthat the topmost partsof plantsalwaysbetterto eat. Hencethe fruit at the top of the treewasbetterthanwhatgrewcloseto the groundandthe topmostleavesof a vegetablewere alwaysbetterthanthe lower ones. It was for this reason,no doubt,that dieteticaltreatises 3 I am currentlyworking on an article in which late medieval and Renaissance "scientificmarvels" are discussed from the point of view of classificatory systems.Concerningthe barnaclegoose see GRIECO,"Classessociales",op. cit. (see note 8). 146 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION for tendedto show a ratherunusualand suspiciouspredilection hops.Thisplant,whichis capableof growingsomefifteento seventeen feet high in just a few months,seemsto have struckthe of dietaryexperts.One of them,Baldassarre Pisanelli, imagination extollsits qualitiesin theseterms: them... andin particular perfect humours, equalises ...it produces it makesbloodclearandpure.Whenthey(hops)arecookedthey... becomea foodwhosevirtueis withoutcomparison andthustheyproduce positive effectsin those who eat of them.39 Despitethe fact thatvegetableswereusuallycondemned by dieticians,this panegyric on hopscontinuesfor anotherhalf a page. It finallyends with a questionwhichhighlightsthis theoretical preconception on the partof the author.The questionhe asksis particularly disarming: why do so few peopleeat sucha superior food? WhatPisanellidoes not seem to understand is that cosinducedvaluesdo not necessarily mologically coincidewith taste. On a less anecdotallevel, it is the generaltheoryof plant currentin 14thto 16th-century growthandplantdigestion, Europe, whichcanbest explainhow the conceptionof high and low becameso deeplyrootedin the supposedly naturalorderof diet and society.Medievalauthorsagreedwith each otherin sayingthat plantswere able to grow becauseof "attraction forces"existing betweentwo differentprinciples. Mostauthorsspeakof a celestial force(sometimesthe sun) whichattracteda terrestrial principle. Restoro d'Arezzo, for example, described this attraction in the followingmanner: ... the sky ... a little like a seal impressesits imageinto wax, attracts the humoursof the earth to it and turns them into trunks,branches, flowersand leaves.40 39"Generano humore perfetto, agguaglianogli humori... e particolarmente fanno iRsanguechiaro & puro... Perdendonella cottura ogni ventosita, e si fanno cibi di virtiuincomparabile,con grand beneficio di ch il'usa", PISANELLI, op. cit. (see note 30), pp. 46-47. " "... l'cielo... la quale elli significae ha in se, come lo sugello significae ha en se e 'ntende de fare e de ponare e Ila cera la figurach'elli ha en s6; e trara enverso se 1'umorede la terra, e faranneel pedone e Ii rami e Ii fiori e le follie". R. D'AREZzo, op. cit. (see note 12), pp. 147-148. 147 ALLEN J. GRIECO Writing at the end of the 14th century, Corniolo della Cornia used a similar image when he reminded his readers that: The nourishingprinciplefor plantscomes from the earth.The generatingprincipleof fruit is the sun, and this is why the earthis referred to as the motherof plants and the sun is referredto as the father.4" In both of these cases, plant growth was considered to be a kind of ascending movement due to the attraction exerted by the sky. At first, this explanation does not seem to carry with it any particular value judgment, although a closer look at the problem of plant growth soon reveals the hierarchy of values which structures botanical theory. In fact, the growth of plants and the "digestive" process that permits their growth were seen as similar to that of human beings, even though the process was somehow reversed insofar as the digestive process of plants ascended while that of human beings descended.42This seemed all the more logical since plants were often thought of as human beings in reverse. Plants thus "digested" the terrestrial food that they absorbed with their roots and turned it into sap, which was then transformed into leaves, flowers, and fruit. It was thought that this digestive process of plants could be observed empiricallyby making a series of incisions at different heights in tree trunks and, as Piero de' Crescenzipointed out, the higher the incision the "better" the sap: "... the food of plants is more insipid at the level of the roots of a plant and, the further we get from the roots, the better the taste of this food ...".4 For much the same reason another author as- serted that the fruit from the top of a tree is "tastier" whereas the fruit from the branchesclosest to the earth is "insipid".' The taller 41 "El principiodel cibo de le piante e da la terra. El principiode la generatione de fructi e dal sole et per6 la terra e dicta madrede le piante, el sole padre". CORNIOLODELLA CORNIA, op. cit. (see note 27), p. 52. 42 Concerningthis point see GRIECO,loc. cit. (see note 13). 43 PIERO DE' CRESCENZI, Trattatodella agricoltura:traslatatonella favella fio- rentina, rivisto dallo 'inferigno accademico della Crusca, Bologna, Istituto delle Scienze,1784, p. 50. Unfortunatelywe do not yet have an edition of this important agriculturaltreatise of the Middle Ages but are looking forward to the one JeanLouis Gaulin is preparing.As is usual, I am quoting from the 18th-centurytranslation mentionedabove. 44 CORNIOLODELLA CORNIA, op. cit. (see note 27), p. 47. 148 PRE-LINNAEANBOTANICALCLASSIFICATION the plant,the longerthe digestionprocess,andthe longerthe disourcesweretransformed gestion,themoretheinferiorearthbound into somekindof superior,moreethereal,food. Theimportance ascribedto a "good"(whichmeant,aboveall, a "long"andthusthorough) digestionwasdueto the factthatthe earthbound elementsabsorbedby the roots of plantshad to be transformed into somethingmoreor less fit for humanconsumption.According the leastdigestedsapproduced to the agronomists, leaves,a foodthatis oftenreferredto as fit for animalsor for the Thebetterdigestedsappropooresturbanandruralpopulations. ducedflowerswhich,as we well know,were eatenin manydifferentwaysall overMedievalEurope.Best of all, the mostperfectlydigestedsap producedfruit. fromthe classification Everything, of the plantworldaccording to a systemof moreor less "noble"plantsto ideas aboutthe growthof plantsand theirabilityto reachupwards,revealsthe extent to which late medievaland early Renaissance botanists, anddietitiansdid not conceiveof a strictseparation agronomists betweenthe naturalworldandthe socialworldof man.TheGreat Chainof Being,which is the inherentstructuring principlebehind the botanicaland dietetictheoriesexamined,was also the meansby whichsocialhierarchies wereprojected onto the natural world.In fact, the GreatChainof Beinghad a doublefunction insofaras it classified thenaturalworldas well as provideda social valuefor all of the plantsit classified.This doublefunctionof andevaluating classifying contributed to makingvegetablesinto a lowlyfood fit for the poorwhilehelpingfruit to becomean attributeof the powerful,who madesurethatit was alwaysserved on theirtablesas both reminderand confirmation of theirsocial superiority. 149