HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  MANNA. 
195 
does  not  mention  manna  as  a  production  of  Sicily ;  yet  in 
enumerating  the  articles  sold  by  the  pound  at  the  former  city, 
he  names  manna  apparently  as  a  foreign  production,  since  he 
couples  it  with  cloves,  cubebs,  rhubarb,  mace  and  long  pepper. 
Further  evidence  of  a  negative  sort  is  afforded  by  Giovanni  di 
Antonio  da  Uzzano,  who  in  his  work  called  Lihro  di  GraheUi, 
written  eiroa  A.  D.  1442,  mentions  the  exports  of  Naples  and  of 
Calabria  as  wine,  oil,  corn,  cheese,  salted  meat,  nuts,  chestnuts, 
soap,  and  oranges,  but  makes  no  reference  to  manna.* 
The  earliest  actual  mention  of  manna  as  an  Italian  drug  that 
I  have  found,  is  in  the  Compendium  Aromatariorum  of  Saladinus, 
printed  at  Bologna  in  1488.  Saladina  was  physician  to  one  of 
the  Princes  of  Tarentum  in  Calabria;  neither  the  date  of  his 
birth  nor  that  of  his  death  is  known,  but  it  would  appear  that  he 
was  living  between  A.  D.  1442  and  1458  ;  for  he  states  that 
during  his  time,  the  King  of  Arragon  punished  his  druggist  at 
Naples  by  a  fine  of  9000  ducats  and  degradation  from  office,  be- 
cause the  king's  physicians  having  prescribed  white  coral  as  an 
ingredient  of  a  cordial  electuary,  the  druggist  not  possessing  it, 
substituted  red  coral.  This  incident  affords  a  clue  to  the  age  of 
Saladinus,  for  it  was  Alphonso  V,  King  of  Arragon,  who  laid 
siege  to  Naples,  captured  it  in  1442,  and  died  in  1458. 
The  work  of  Saladinus  to  which  I  have  alluded,  is  a  sort  of 
handbook  for  the  aromatarius  or  druggist,  and  is  remarkable  for 
much  practical  good  sense.  Besides  numerous  formulse  and  de- 
scriptive notices  of  drugs,  it  contains  a  calendar  enumerating  the 
hejbs,  flowers,  seeds,  roots  and  gums  to  be  collected  in  each 
month  ;  and  in  terminating  the  list  for  May,  there  occurs  the 
following  passage : 
"  Oollige  etia  in  isto  mese  mana  ta  in  oriete  qm:  in  Calabria  quia  tunc 
ros  ille  preciosius  de  celo  cadit." 
IT 
*  Pegolotti's  work  forms  the  third  volume,  and  Da  Uzzano's  the  fourth, 
of  the  book  published  anonymously  by  Gian  Francesco  Pagnini  under  the 
title  of  Delia  Decima  e  di  varie  altre  Gravezze  impaste  dot  Commune  di 
Firenze,  etc.,  Lisb.  e  Lucca,  1765-6,  4P,  III,  99  ;  lY,  96-98.  Some 
valuable  information  on  Pegolotti  and  his  writings  may  be  found  in  Col. 
Yule's  Cathay  and  the  way  thither,  Lond.  1866  (Hakluyt  Society),  Yol. 
II,  279. 
