The Taste of Conquest (43 page)
Read The Taste of Conquest Online
Authors: Michael Krondl
It had been a long trip from St. Albans to the pepper coast of Malabar, through a world of flavors and centuries of pungent smells. I recalled Luca’s telling me—how many bottles of Prosecco had we drunk?—that the world changes but people don’t. Spices were trendy for much the same reason in 1500 as they are now. Once again, people are looking to spices for the elixir of life or a ticket to paradise. And the future bodes well for people who study spices as well as for those who come up with new ways for us to consume them. As they have done for at least two thousand years, the people in the middle will take their share, paying the farmers as little as possible and charging us as much as they can get away with. As I looked out the window of the speeding taxi at the pepper woods flashing by behind fences painted with cell phone ads, it occurred to me that like those long-ago Venetians,
Lisboetas,
and Amsterdamers, we are living in a new golden age of spice.
List of Illustrations and Maps
Andries Beeckman,
The Fortress of Batavia,
circa 1656. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.
The “Apothecaries’ Art,” from the
Libro delle gabelle,
mid-fourteenth century. Biblioteca Riccardiana. Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
Medieval trade routes.
Vittore Carpaccio,
The Miracle of the True Cross at Rialto,
circa 1496. Gallerie dell’ Accademia. Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
Medieval trade routes in the eastern Mediterranean.
“Pepper,” late sixteenth century, from Garcia da Orta’s
Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India
(London: Henry Sotheran and Co., 1913).
“Banquet Scene,” from Cristoforo da Messisbugo’s
Banchetti compositioni di vivande, et apparecchio generale
(Ferrara, 1549). Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
Bussolai
sellers, from Gaetano Zompini’s
Le arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia,
1785. Courtesy of Antonio Barzaghi.
“Lisbon,” from Pieter Boudewin van der Aa’s
La galerie agréable du monde,
before 1733. Biblioteca Casanatense. Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
The
Vera Cruz.
Photo courtesy of Hernâni Amaral Xavier.
The cape route to India and the Spice Islands.
“Portuguese Gentlemen in India,” from
Figurae variae…In Lingua Lusitana,
1540. Biblioteca Casanatense. Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
“Goa Marketplace,” from Jan Huyghen van Linschoten’s
Navigatio ac itinerarium Iohannis Hugonis Linscotani
(Amsterdam, 1614). Biblioteca Riccardiana. Reproduced under concession of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities.
“Cinnamon,” late sixteenth century, from Garcia da Orta’s
Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India
(London: Henry Sotheran and Co., 1913).
Albert Cuyp,
A Chief Merchant of the VOC,
circa 1650. Courtesy of the Haags Historisch Museum.
Pieter Claesz,
Still Life with Turkey Pie,
1627, detail. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.
Dutch East Indies.
“Nutmeg,” mid-sixteenth century, from
Herbal
by Joseph Wood Krutch. Reprinted by permission of David R. Godine, Publisher.
Anonymous,
Jan Pietersz. Coen (1587–1629),
circa 1625? Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.
Edwin Tunis,
Untitled (Pepper and Vanilla),
circa 1934. Courtesy of McCormick & Company Inc.
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