HISTORICAL NOTES ON MANNA. 
329 
has left one entitled Commentarii Urbani, in which we find a sentence in the 
following words 1 : 
“ Manna nostra setate coepit in Calabria provenire: licet orientali in- 
“ ferior.” 
The signification of this I take to be, that manna first began to be collected 
in Calabria, within the author’s recollection, but that it was not considered so 
good as the Eastern manna. 
It is to be observed that Saladinus, Pontano and Maffei all speak of manna 
as a production of Calabria, and it is evident, I think, that for a long time the 
drug was afforded by that region and not by Sicily 7 -. 
Brasavolus of Ferrara, describing the drugs found in the shops circa a.d. 
1537, mentions manna as a production of Calabria. 2 
Matthioli (1548) remarks that of manna he has only seen two sorts, the Le¬ 
vantine and the Calabrian. 3 
Alberti in his Descrittione di tutta Italia , published at Bologna in 1550, men¬ 
tions manna as found in Calabria. 4 
Garcia d’Orta (1563) 5 and Christopher Acosta (1574) 6 describe different 
kinds of Oriental manna, contrasting them with that of Calabria. 
Still more significant is the fact that Fazelli, a well-known writer on Sicily 
(1558), in a chapter on the productiveness of the island, boasts of its wine, oil, 
sugar, honey, fruits and saffron, but says not one word of manna or the manna- 
ash. 7 
The manna collected in these early times was undoubtedly that which the 
trees produced spontaneously, but it was neither abundant nor cheap. 8 That 
which exuded from the leaves was esteemed the best, and was called manna di 
foglia or manna di Jronda; it is described as being in the form of solid, trans¬ 
lucent, white grains, resembling little grains of mastich, and having a sweet and 
agreeable taste. The second sort was that which flowed spontaneously from the 
trunk and branches, and was termed manna di corpo ; while the third or com¬ 
monest kind was that picked up from the ground. 
Towards the middle of the sixteenth century, it was found that a much more 
copious supply of manna could be obtained by notching the bark of the tree, 
and this new method of procuring the drug began to be adopted. 9 But the in¬ 
novation did not pass unnoticed, for in the year 1562 Marino Spinelli. being 
protomedico of the kingdom of Naples, set about inquiring as to the article sold 
by the druggists as Manna : and as he doubtless found it no longer corresponded 
with that of former days, he declared in concert with other learned physicians, 
that it was by no means good; and further to enforce his opinion, he procured 
the issuing of a public edict, prohibiting the druggists under a severe penalty 
from using any other manna than that of the leaf. This law proved very in¬ 
jurious to the Calabrians; it was felt also to be both severe and unjust by many 
of the physicians, one of whom, Annibal Briganti, took up the question in a 
1 Volatervanus (Raph.) Comment. Urban., Paris, 1515, fol., lib. 38. f. 413. I have not 
been able to consult an earlier edition of his works published, it is said, at Rome in 1506. 
2 JExamen omnium simplicium, Lugd. 1637* 8°, p. 335. 
3 Comment, in Lib. I. Diosc. cap. 70. 
4 P.198. 
5 Colloquios dos Simples, etc., Goa, 1563, 4°, p. 132. 
6 Tractado de las Drogas y Medicinas de las Indias Orientales, Burgos, 1578, 8°, p. 399. 
7 De Rebus Siculis, Dec. I. lib. i. ch. 4. De Ubertate Sicilice. 
8 Fiore da Cropani in his Calabria Illustrata, Napoli, 1691, says (p. 253) that the manna 
difronda has been sometimes sold even in Calabria at 50 scudi for 6 ounces. 
9 In Bauhin’s edition of the Commentaries of Matthioli, published at Basle in 1574, the 
practice of making incisions in the bark of the tree is distinctly alluded to, as being followed 
in Apulia and Calabria “ hdc cetate .” 
VOL. XI. 
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