[Sca-cooks] Watermelon mentions: 1

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

This is all very interesting Johnna and I certainly appreciate your taking  
the time to dig it up. But I hope it's clear that very little of it refers 
to  watermelon, or specifically expands Dalby's references.
 
The Pliny reference is especially mystifying, since it cites chapters  (69–
70) that go beyond any count I see for book 19 - the last chapter is  62:
 
_http://books.google.com/books?id=IUoMAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor%3Apliny%20cucurb
ita&pg=PA203#v=onepage&q&f=false_ 
(http://books.google.com/books?id=IUoMAAAAIAAJ&dq=inauthor:pliny%20cucurbita&pg=PA203#v=onepage&q&f=false) 
 
One thing I've noticed in looking around on this question is that more than 
 one writer posits a possible interpretation of a text, and then they or 
others  treat that as settled, rather than provisory. For instance, some have 
cited  Pliny's reference to a type of "cucumber" as referring to a melon 
(not a  watermelon). Yet, first of all, Pliny says that this is shaped like a 
quince  ("mali cotonei effigie"). Which is hardly true of most melons, beyond 
their  being round (but much bigger). And another writer suggests that this 
refers to a  pumpkin.
 
The NIH article also makes the rather strange claim that Anthimus must have 
 been using "melone" to refer to a watermelon because he says to mix the 
seeds  with the meat. But first of all, you can do that with a melon (I've 
done it; not  pleasant especially, but it works). More to the point, why WOULD 
you do it with  a watermelon? The seeds are already embedded in the flesh. 
You have to do it  with a melon because the seeds are in a separate seed 
cavity.
 
Archaeology certainly shows, as it turns out, that watermelons at least  
existed in Gaul in the early centuries of the Christian era. But I still don't 
 see any clear signs that the four writers first cited were referring to 
this  fruit.
 
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

FRENCH BREAD HISTORY:  Late medieval bread
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2015/06/french-bread-history-late-medieval-brea
d.html








In a message dated 7/26/2015 3:54:11 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
johnnae at mac.com writes:

I am  just going to post lots of what I have found and let everyone either 
read them  or discard as they see  fit.