MEDIAEVAL SPICES, GROCERIES AND WAX. 



483 



Pliny's de- 



commodities 1 required for the same religious establishment at 1075. 

 a much later period (A.D. 1332 ?) the following pigments are 

 enumerated Sulphus, Ib. 10, Auripigmentum, Ib. 3, Sanguis 

 Draconis, Ib. 3, Indium (indigo) Ib. 3. 



Pliny describes the best quality as resembling in colour the 

 finest gold, dry, pure, splitting into thin layers, a description 

 according exactly with a specimen in my possession. 



19. Cyminum, cumin seed, much used in the middle ages as 

 a cheap and common spice. 



20. Pyon, in Low Latin, pignolus, in French, pignon, the 

 kernels of the stone pine, Pinus pinea, L. In the Liber Albus 

 the same article under the name of pyoine, and in the Liber 

 Horn as pyoingne, appears as liable to the king's impost called 

 Scavage. 



21. Gyngebrad, otherwise written Gingibretum or Zinzibratum, 

 signifies preserved or candied ginger, a favourite mediaeval 

 delicacy imported from India. The exact meaning of the term 

 gorde or gurda, applied to this article, is doubtful. 2 



22. Three boxes (pyxides) of the preserved ginger and, 

 " Pyonad ; " the latter is the French Pignolat, a confection of 

 fine kernels (see No. 20), with white of egg and sugar. Its 

 modern representative is the sweetmeat called nougat, still made 

 in the south of France, especially at the town of Montelimart. 

 Minute directions " Pour faire le Pignolat " are given by 

 Michel de Nostredame (or Nostradamus), the famous astrologer, 

 in his Excellent et Moult Utile Opuscule a touts necessaire, qui 

 desirent avoir Cognoissance de Plusieurs Exquises Receptes, Paris, 



1556. An Ordonnance of Philippe-le-Bel, " touchant les Epi- Ordonnance of 

 ceries et les Denrtes, qui se vendent au poids" issued in the year 

 1312, contains the following paragraph designed to protect the 

 purchaser of preserved ginger and pignolat : 



1 Polytique de VAtibb Irminon, ii. 336. 



2 [Note on the Trade of Montpellier, from Depping (G.B.) Hist, de Com- 

 merce entre le Levant et V Europe, Paris, 1830, tome i., 304. " Encore line 

 note de la maison du roi d'Angleterre, Henri III., a Bordeaux, qui en 1232 

 commarida a Montpellier, non seulement vingt pieces d'etoffes de soie, et 



Pyonad. 



* e ~ 



quatre de drap ecarlate, mais encore, trois gourdes de Gingembre confit." The 

 ipsissima verba are " tres curdas de " 



de Londres, extraits par Br^quigny. 



I I 2 



