Paul H. Freedman. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. x + 275 pp. $30.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6.
Reviewed by William C. Crossgrove
Published on H-German (February, 2009)
Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher
As Paul Freedman notes in the introductory man then cannot resist retelling the tale, in chap‐ chapter of this volume, an enormous historical lit‐ ters 7 and 8, of how government-backed expedi‐ erature treats the medieval spice trade and its piv‐ tions set out to fnd and gain control of sources otal role in stimulating western Europeans to un‐ through exploration and conquest. These two dertake deep-water exploration and establish chapters are well documented and engagingly colonial enterprises. But this literature is con‐ narrated, but they cover material likely to be fa‐ cerned primarily with the supply side, with how miliar to historians as well as to many general to circumvent Muslim and Venetian middlemen. readers. Finally, in a concluding chapter, he Freedman proposes instead to focus on the de‐ chronicles the decline of demand for spices in the mand side, on "why spices were so popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and their frst place, why they were sufciently sought after disappearance from world trade as commodities for traders to bring them to Europe from what that countries would go to war to control. The seemed the farthest corners of the world" (p. 2). work is primarily narrative rather than analyti‐ And this is what he does, especially in the frst cal, but general readers will enjoy it no less for three chapters. Chapters 4 through 6 provide de‐ that. tails on how the spice trade worked in the Middle While previewing his main arguments in the Ages, how lack of knowledge of and control over introductory chapter, Freedman quickly dispens‐ their sources whetted Europeans' desire to elimi‐ es with the old chestnut that spices were so popu‐ nate the middlemen, and how voices raised lar in the Middle Ages because they helped pre‐ against conspicuous consumption of spices had serve meat and cover up spoilage. He notes that little efect on their use. Having established how salting, pickling, smoking, or air-curing were and why Europeans were so eager to pay high much more efective means of preservation. More prices for an enormous variety of spices, Freed‐ importantly, the price of spices so exceeded that H-Net Reviews of fresh meat that it would have made no eco‐ less concern about how the dishes might have nomic sense at all to use them for anything other tasted. Even people of moderate wealth, however, than as enhancements of cuisine, as drugs, and as appear to have spent amounts of money on spices aromatics. Above all, they were "prized as con‐ that seem alien to modern consumers. Freedman sumer goods by the afuent" (p. 2). In addition to can demonstrate this point with recipes from a black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, and safron, such late fourteenth-century Parisian book of house‐ spices as galangal, zedoary, long pepper, and keeping that contains more than four hundred "grains of paradise" (malagueta pepper from West recipes. Tips for simplifying recipes and saving on Africa) were commonly used in medieval cookery, excessive use of spices notwithstanding, elaborate along with sugar, which only later became the banquet recipes are included that seem hardly commodity that we know today. These, along with less grand than those of the highest nobles. He many others, including even ground mummy, also cites examples of anecdotes illustrating how were used as medicinal drugs, while expensive peasants were made fun of by showing how they aromatic resins and animal products such as am‐ were completely unused to spices other than pep‐ bergris, castoreum, musk, and civet were used as per. fragrances, both for aesthetic and for medical rea‐ Above all, the use of large quantities of expen‐ sons. sive spices underlined a family's social status, and Of these, only safron could be found readily Freedman provides detailed descriptions of meals in Europe. It remains expensive today, primarily prepared for specifc occasions that highlight this because of the difculty of harvesting it and the point. To give just one example, a series of ban‐ large number of stamens required to make a com‐ quets on the occasion of the 1476 marriage of mercially viable amount. Most of the others have Duke George "the Rich" of Bavaria to Princess Jad‐ all but vanished from the European table. Freed‐ wiga of Poland required: "386 pounds of pepper, man also draws an important distinction between 286 of ginger, 207 of safron, 205 of cinnamon, 105 spices and herbs. Spices, because of the long tran‐ of cloves, and a mere 85 pounds of nutmeg" (p. 6). sit time from their origins in unknown parts of As for the source of the fascination with highly the world, were sold in dried form, while herbs spiced cuisine, Freedman argues that it was al‐ were raised locally and used fresh. Herbs, though ready well established in Roman times. What dif‐ also used in cuisine, were especially important in fered in medieval Europe was simply the avail‐ medicine, not least because their use was not lim‐ ability of more spices through the Muslim trading ited to the afuent. networks. The chapter on cuisine is, appropriate‐ Chapter 1, on the use of spices in medieval ly, the longest in the book. cuisine, draws its primary evidence from me‐ In his discussion of spices as medicinal drugs dieval cookbooks and from accounts of meals (chapter 2), Freedman shows how the humoral served on special occasions. For the modern read‐ balance sought in medieval medical theory in‐ er (or eater), the most notable feature of medieval evitably led cuisine and medicine to interact. cookbooks is the large amount and variety of While each spice, herb, and foodstuf was thought spices used in individual dishes, especially in the theoretically to have its own qualities (hot, cold, form of elaborate sauces. Individuals working for wet, dry) in one of four degrees, these considera‐ the wealthiest and most powerful families pro‐ tions were seldom rigidly applied in the prepara‐ duced most of the surviving cookbooks. The over‐ tion of foods. Herbals (handbooks for treating ill‐ whelming impression is of cooks trying to outdo nesses) were more likely to follow humoral guide‐ each other in ostentation and presentation, with lines in recommending what herb or spice to use
2 H-Net Reviews for a particular complaint. Here, perhaps to a 1497 Vasco da Gama carried letters to him from greater degree than Freedman explicitly states, the King of Portugal. the use of imported spices was overlaid on an old‐ Chapters 4 through 6 deal respectively with er tradition of herbal medicine after the transla‐ details and history of the existing spice trade; tion of key Arabic texts into Latin in the transition with factors that determined scarcity, abundance, from the early to the High Middle Ages. More im‐ and proft for the traders; and with voices that portantly, importation of spices for medicinal pur‐ condemned spices as immoral luxuries. It is im‐ poses played an important role in the rise of the portant to keep in mind that Europe was a periph‐ drug seller. And the more afuent members of so‐ eral market. From the sources in South and south‐ ciety could best aford to purchase spices, often in eastern Asia to the markets in China, India, and the form of complex potions. the Islamic world, only a small percentage of the The third chapter outlines the use of the overall global trade ultimately found its way to odors given of by spices. Freedman notes that Europe. This meant that Europeans were depen‐ only a small amount of the spices imported to Eu‐ dent on the predominantly Arab middlemen from rope were used for medicine or perfume, but "fra‐ whom they obtained spices, but they had no di‐ grance, even more than gastronomy, explains the rect knowledge of or control over the supply fuc‐ allure of spices because perfume ... joined togeth‐ tuations that might infuence these markets. Only er so many appealing efects" (p. 76). Scents could rarely, as during the brief period of Mongol hege‐ heighten sexual attraction and bring down the mony in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth wrath of moralists, yet they were also symbols of centuries, did Europeans have limited direct ac‐ holiness and central elements of church services. cess to East Asian markets. Freedman uses nu‐ The desire for fragrances to counteract the foul merous examples from extant documents to pro‐ smells of medieval urban life readily explains one vide details of how the trade worked, who the of their uses, but long traditions associating saint‐ most important traders were, and how spices liness and good smells were no doubt also impor‐ were distributed at the retail level. He also dis‐ tant. Indeed, it was a commonplace that the bod‐ cusses the important issue of fraud and adulter‐ ies of saints gave of sweet odors when they de‐ ation. While prices fuctuated over time, it is obvi‐ composed. Fragrant spices thus provided analogs. ous from the extant records that a great variety of Europeans did not know where spices came from, spices were available but at very high prices. and it was widely believed that valuable sub‐ In the ffth chapter, Freedman discusses the stances, including gemstones as well as spices, nature of scarcity itself: it can be intrinsic (there were swept down the rivers of Asia and Africa is not much of something), circumstantial (the de‐ from their origins in Paradise. Even as the frst sired item needs to be transported to where it is European travelers ventured into Asia in the thir‐ desired), or artifcial (the supply is deliberately re‐ teenth and fourteenth centuries, the legendary stricted by human action). He gives detailed ex‐ Christian kingdom of Prester John continued to amples of each kind of scarcity, but the main rea‐ captivate the imagination of Europeans because son for approaching the topic in this way is to sug‐ its discovery might open direct access to the gest that Europeans eventually became convinced sources of spices without reliance on infdel that they could eliminate the traders and make traders. As Freedman notes, Pope Alexander III enormous profts themselves by getting direct ac‐ sent an emissary to search for Prester John in cess to the sources of spices. 1177 (he was never heard from again), and in Chapter 6 is a bit of a lull in the coming storm, a retarding moment before Freedman plunges
3 H-Net Reviews into the story of how Europeans came to take over cane Frances destroyed the nutmeg crop of the global trade in spices. With examples ranging Granada [sic], the largest producer of this spice, from Ulrich von Hutten to Dante Alighieri and es‐ yet the world fnancial system did not tremble" pecially to Geofrey Chaucer, Freedman shows (p. 3). how the unseemly use of spices, especially in os‐ Extensive footnotes, a bibliography of over tentatious preparation of food, could outrage me‐ three hundred items, and an excellent index dieval moralists. Even monasteries came in for a round out the volume. In addition to three maps, fair share of bitter comment for their overindul‐ there are eighteen illustrations, all but two of gence in expensive ingredients when simpler fare which are drawn from medieval manuscripts or was available. All of this of course did little to maps. Thirteen original texts containing recipes dampen the market. and descriptions are interspersed throughout the In chapters 7 and 8, Freedman retells the sto‐ book, set of in boxes and italicized to mark them ry of the voyages of exploration and the military as source material. An additional one summarizes conquest that led to the establishment of colonial information from a manuscript. These range from empires. As noted earlier, these chapters provide a full page to just a few lines, and they lend an a lot of interesting details, but they cover more fa‐ aura of authenticity to the narrative by providing miliar ground than that narrated in the frst six illustrative examples for the reader. chapters. Nonetheless, the presentation of the sto‐ Freedman presents his arguments throughout ries of discovery and conquest are well integrated with analysis of extant documents and with de‐ with the previous discussions. They provide a f‐ tailed examples. The reader is sometimes left with nal arch to the narrative that helps explain why a welter of images but without an easy way to de‐ European nations were willing to expend so much cide what is typical and what is unusual. Here we life and treasure to get control of the spice trade. get to the fundamental problem of narrative his‐ In a concluding chapter, we learn just how tory. We must rely on the integrity and rhetorical quickly everything changed. In the course of the skills of the narrator to build a convincing case. seventeenth century, French gastronomy came to Freedman is largely successful in doing so, though reject the heavy use of spices in favor of rich, the examples drawn from medieval cookbooks creamy sauces favored only with a modicum of might proftably have been compared to the mod‐ herbs. Within just a few generations, heavily eration usually counseled in regimens of health, a spiced foods came to be associated with a lack of genre of medieval text that was more common sophistication. Sugar was largely banished from than cookbooks. main courses, but it soon became a commodity Finally, Freedman often refers to contempo‐ consumed by everyone in the British Isles as new rary phenomena as analogs to the points he is sources of production caused its price to plunge. making. These are sometimes humorous but they As Freedman notes: "when we look at the Middle also serve to make serious points. Here are just a Ages the real mystery is not why spices were pop‐ few examples: ular, but why later, after a millennium of continu‐ "A freezer was an emblem of prosperity in the ous popularity, they dropped out of favor" (p. 1950s but is no longer, and chicken is now cheap 221). As humoral medicine came to be discredited, whereas it was considered a treat in the 1920s. As the medicinal use of spices also declined, though this is being written, fat-screen televisions are these were never as important as the use of spices making the transition from show-of to routine in cuisine. In the introductory chapter Freedman items" (p. 7); had already noted, "in the summer of 2004, Hurri‐
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"In general, frst class loses some of its allure if ordinary people can upgrade to it easily; a 'gold' credit card means nothing if everyone possesses several of them" (p. 43); "The perceived cleanliness of the body's inte‐ rior was perhaps more important [in the Middle Ages] than its exterior, rather than vice versa as today; the laxative more important than the mois‐ turizer" (p. 52). Such examples efectively bring the dynamic at the basis of the relationship between the attrac‐ tiveness of spices and their rarity in premodern Europe home to the reader. On balance, Freed‐ man has written a masterful synthesis of research from many diferent branches of economic, social, political, and textual history. Occasionally, some of the detail from particular texts makes for slow going, but the reader is ultimately rewarded with additional insights and with an overall perspec‐ tive that makes it worthwhile to keep on reading.
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Citation: William C. Crossgrove. Review of Freedman, Paul H. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. H-German, H-Net Reviews. February, 2009.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=23721
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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