Materia Medica

Food & Drink

Barley water, honeyed wine, raisins, prunes, malmsey, and spirit of wine: the diet that Galenic medicine counted part of the cure.

13 entries · An introduction to Galenic pharmacy

Barley water, plate: Barley
Food & DrinkBarley waterAcqua d’orzo A thin decoction of barley.Canale
Food & DrinkChocolateNahuatl cacahuatl; cacao The fermented, dried, and roasted seeds of Theobroma cacao, drunk by the Maya and the Aztecs before Spanish conquistadors met it in 1519.
Food & Drink CoffeeArabic qahwah; Italian caffè The roasted seeds of Coffea arabica; the drink began in Yemen, reached Istanbul by the early sixteenth century, and came to Europe through Venetian merchants.
Damascus prunes (Prunus insititia), plate: Plum
Food & DrinkDamascus prunesPrugne damaschine Damson plums, Prunus insititia, dried.Canale
Food & Drink HoneyMel Honey of bees.
Honeyed wine and honeyed water, plate: Albarello for honey of roses, Italy, 17th century
Food & DrinkHoneyed wine and honeyed waterMulsa Wine or water sweetened with honey.Canale
Malmsey, plate: Malvasia grapes
Food & DrinkMalmseyMalvasia Malvasia wine, named from Monemvasia, a fortress port on the coast of Laconia that traded the wine of the eastern Peloponnese; Venice dealt in it so much that its wine-shops were called malvasie.Canale
Raisins, plate: Grape vine
Food & DrinkRaisinsUva passa Dried grapes.Canale
Spirit of wine, plate: Distillation
Food & DrinkSpirit of wineAcqua di vita Distilled alcohol.Canale
Food & DrinkSugarSaccharum Cane sugar, Saccharum officinarum.
Sweet almond, oil of, plate: Almond
Food & DrinkSweet almond, oil ofOglio di mandole dolci Oil pressed from sweet almonds.Canale
Food & DrinkTeaChinese chá, Amoy te; thea The dried leaves of Camellia sinensis; a ship of the Dutch East India Company brought the first green tea to Amsterdam from China early in the seventeenth century.
Food & Drink VinegarAcetum Soured wine.

Historical description, not medical advice.