482 MEDLEVAL SPICES, GROCERIES AND WAX. 



1873. was conveyed by a long land journey to the Mediterranean ports 

 of the Barbary states, and shipped for Italy. It was used in 

 Europe as a culinary spice, of the nature of pepper. 



Saffron. 10. Crocus, saffron. There is probably some over-statement 

 in the quantity, which is enormous. The value is represented as 

 equivalent to only 2s. Wd. a pound; while according to Pro- 

 fessor Thorold Eogers, the average price of saffron in England 

 from 1259 to 1350, was about Ss. 6d., and from 1351 to 1400, 

 145. 2d. per Ib. 

 11. Gariofoli (Caryophylli), cloves. 



Cubebs. 12. Quibibus, cubebs. The spice was sold, it will be observed, 

 at a very high rate. In the description of a grand feast, written 

 towards the close of the thirteenth century, by Walter de Bibles- 

 worth, 1 we find the following : 



Au tercez cours avient conyns en grave", 

 E viaunde de Cypre enfundre, 

 De maces, e quibibes, e clous de orre", 

 Vyn blanc e vermayl a graunt plente*. 



13. Mads, mace. 



14. Feniculum, fennel seeds. 



15. Anisum, aniseed. 



16. Liquiricia, liquorice, at only Id. per Ib. Can it have 

 been the extract, or was it only the dried root ? 



17. Cotun file, cotton thread, imported from Italy, and used, 

 according to Professor Thorold Rogers, for the wicks of the better 

 kinds of candles. It is often mentioned in mediaeval lists of gro- 

 ceries, as, for instance, in the Tarif des Peages of the Counts of 

 Provence, in the thirteenth century, where it appears as Cotonfilat. 



Orpimeut. 18. Orpiment, Auripigmentum, native yellow sulphide of 

 arsenic. It was used as a pigment in the illumination of manu- 

 scripts. 2 In the diploma granted by Chilperic II., King of the 

 Franks, to the monastery of Corbie, A.D. 716, mention is made 

 of a supply of 10 Ib. of Aurum pigmentum* In another list of 





419. 



1 Wright, Volume of Vocabularies, 1657, 174. 



2 Theophilus, De Diversis Artibus, translated by Hendrie, Lond., 1847, 53, 



PardessiiR, Diplomata, Charts Epittolce, &c., Lutet., Paris., ii.(1849), 309. 



