22 MR. D. HANBURY ON RADIX GALANGE. 
in the * Romance of Godefroi de Bouillon, a poem written in the 
twelfth century, it is named as one of the rarities of the East, 
which the Crusaders were deluded into believing would be found 
in plenty in the Holy Land *. 
Marco Polo, in his travels in Asia in the thirteenth century, 
observed galangal to be produced in Southern China (Province of 
Foochow ?), as well as in Java t. 
About this period it was also known in Western Europe. 
St. Hildegard, Abbess of Bingen, who died in A.D. 1179, names 
it as galgan, and comments upon its medicinal virtues t. 
Galangal is catalogued with other spices (as ginger, cinnamon, 
cloves, and nutmegs) in the tariff of duties levied in the port of 
Colibre (Collioure), in Roussillon, in a.p. 1252 $. 
A more interesting notice of the drug is contained in the jour- 
nal of expenses of John, King of France, from July 1, 1359, to 
July 8, 1360, during his residence in England, preserved in the 
‘Comptes de 1'Argenterie des Rois de France.’ Besides purchases 
of sugar, mace, ginger, cloves, pepper, cardamoms, calamus aroma- 
tieus, and many other drugs, we find three entries for galangal, 
namely, for 4 lb. 184., for 2 lbs. 6s., and for 1 Ib. 22d.|| As the 
price of gold happens to be also mentioned in one part of the ac- 
count, it is easy to form an estimate of the relative value of 
galangal. This shows the price of 3s. per pound to be equivalent 
to about 10s. of our present money—not extravagant for a commo- 
dity transported from the remotest Asia to the centre of England. 
In Professor J. E. Thorold Rogers's *History of Agriculture and 
Priees in England, there are eleven entries indicating the price 
of galangal in England between A.D. 1264 and 1376. The highest 
was in 1307, when 2 lbs. of the spice purchased for the Crown 
* * Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, tome ii, (1840-41), p. 437. 
+ ‘Le Livre de Marco Polo’ (éd. Pauthier: Paris, 1865), pp, 522, 561. 
t ‘S. Hildegardis Abbatisse Opera omnia, accurante J. P. Migne, Paris 
1855, p. 1134. 
$ Capmany, * Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina, Comercio y Artes de la 
Ciudad de Barcelona,' 1779, tomo ii. p. 20. 
|| The original entries are as follows :— 
“ Lundy VII* jour d'octobre. Jehan Kelleshulle, espicier à St. Boutoul, pour 
espices prises de li pour le Roy....Galingal, demie livre 18d. Jeudy XIIe 
jour de février....Galingal, 2 livres, 6s. Samedy XXVII* jour de juing.--- 
Berthélemi Mine, espicier.. . . Galingal, une livre, 22d... . ." 
L. Douet D'Arcq, ‘Comptes de l'Argenterie des Rois de France au XIV* 
siècle. Paris, 1851, 8vo. pp. 218, 232, 265, 266, 
