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the frame of one of the doors of the Pisa cathedral that date to 1601 (Fig. 14). Figure 14. Ovate eggplant on bronze door of Pisa cathedral, Italy, 1601. Photo by courtesy of J. Janick. 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES AND BEYOND The increasing popularity of eggplant post Renaissance is indicated by the continued richness of eggplant iconography in art up to and including the 20th century. We have located A B Figure 15. Oblong white and purple types in Codex Liechtenstein, vol.5 folios 102 & 104, 1779. Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Austria. ovate, medium sized and violettish eggplants in paintings by Vincenzo Campi (ca. 1580), Francesco Zucchi (1600), Hendrick van Balen (ca. 1618), Jan Anton van der Baren (1650), Giacomo Francesco Cipper, also known as Todeschini (ca. 1700). The great period of botanical illustration that flourished during the 18th century gave rise to the production of gorgeous eggplant images (Fig. 15), sometimes hidden in painting details, but also present in florilegia and expensive botanical treatises, usually displaying globose or oblong, purple or white fruits. From the end of the 18th century onwards, another kind of hand drawn or sometimes painted images became available, with the first seed catalogues such as the Vilmorin edition of 1760 (which mentioned eggplant as an ornamental annual). Seed catalogues are a unique source for typifying “old” vegetable cultivars (Fig. 16). In the second half of the 20th century, photographs replaced these drawings. Eggplant, as other vegetables, continued to inspire artists of the 19th and 20th centuries including Emile Bernard (1868-1941), Emile Gallé (1846-1904), Antonio Mancini (1852-1930), and Henri Matisse (1869-1954). A Figure 16. Eggplant shapes in Vilmorin catalogue, ed. 1925 (France): A. globular and globose; B. pyriform and ovate (plante aux œufs, on the right); C. elongated. CONCLUDING COMMENTS The historical literature and iconography we investigated indicates that eggplant has long been common in Asia and Europe as food and to a lesser extent as medicine. The medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties attributed to eggplant seem to be related to the somewhat bitter and piquant flavors of the fruit (spicy food were thought to induce hot bloodedness), and possibly also because it was associated with mandrake, another Old World solanaceous species also bearing globose berries, yellowish at maturity. Yet, most authors sought to alleviate concerns by providing methods to render eggplant harmless in cookery. The interpretation of the fruit characteristics of cultivars from the past requires some caution. Sometimes the text and illustrations do not match since the writer and artist were often different persons. This is especially true in the hand tinted versions where colors are doubtful, such as the green color of the Fuchs’ tinted drawing contradicted by the text mentioning purple and white fruits (Fig. 8). Illustrations and related texts do depict genetic diversity at various historical periods, including fruit size, shape, and color as well as the absence or presence of spines on the calyx, a character that was selected against with domestication. From the early Middle Ages, eggplant iconography clearly reveals the existence of fruit globular to globose to pyriform, medium to large size, and purple (dark or light) or white. The elongated fruit type is represented only towards the end of the 16th century suggesting the introduction of a new form. The iconographic and textual documentation seems to indicate that the fruits were sometimes eaten when physiologically ripe (yellow or brown). The constancy of the cultivar types through time suggests that eggplant, as in tree fruits (Janick, 2005), has not substantially changed for millennia despite the new combinations derived from 20th century breeding in particular for adaptation to new agro-climatic conditions, darker fruits, non-pungent and non-bitter taste, and spinelessness. Fruit striping (Fig. 17) is very rare in the iconographic documents, suggesting a late introduction from the Indian eggplant domestication and diversity center, where this color pattern is quite common. B Figure 17. Eggplant diversity, including fruit striping. Photo by courtesy of M.C. Daunay. C ISHS • 20
Eggplant has entered popular culture, folklore, and poetry. In Istanbul, the southern wind was named patlican metlemi (eggplant wind) because it blew on the many fires where eggplants were grilled (Hennig, 1994). In Sicily, eggplant is called quaglie (partridge) because its long fruits are often cut by cooks in such a way to resemble wings. A famous Japanese proverb, beautifully illustrated (Fig. 18) says: the happiest omen for a New Year is first Mount Fuji, then the falcon, and lastly eggplant. In 1123, the eggplant inspired the poet Ibn Sara of Santarem, Portugal (translated by C. Middleton and L. Garza-Falcon, 1997): Figure 18. First spring days. Nishike-e print/engraving, 18th century, Japan. © Thierry Ollivier. Musée Guimet, Paris, France. See enlargement of eggplant (left). Spheroid Fruit, pleasing To taste, fattened By water gushing in all The gardens, glossy cupped In its petiole, ah heart Of a lamb in A vulture’s claws ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors acknowledge assistance from the Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis, USA), the Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum (Berlin), the Universities of Erlangen-Nürnberg and Eichstaett-Ingolstadt (Germany), the municipal library of Ulm (Germany), the Österreischiche Nazional Bibliothek (Vienna, Austria), the Liechtenstein Museum (Vienna, Austria), the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris, France), the Musée Guimet (Paris, France), the Musée Requien (Avignon, France), the University of Bologna (Italy) and the Casanatense library (Rome, Italy). The authors are indebted to H. Laterrot (retiree from INRA, Génétique et Amélioration des Fruits et Légumes, Montfavet, France), A. Jacobsohn (Le Potager du Roi, Versailles, France), P. Mane and Ch. von Verschuer (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris), D. Grail (INRA, Mission Communication Paris), J.M. Bossennec (INRA, Photothèque, Paris) and Jung-Myung Lee (Suwon, Korea) for providing information and images, to L. Laterrot (retiree from INRA, Génétique et Amélioration des Fruits et Légumes, Montfavet, France) for her invaluable help for communicating with Italian libraries, to Julián Cuevas (University of Almeria, Spain) and Paul Hoover (San Franscisco State University, California, USA) for locating translations of the Ibn Sara poem, as well as to E. Jullian (INRA Montfavet) and A. Whipkey (Purdue University, IND, USA) for the management of the images. REFERENCES Allard, J. 1996. L’aubergine au Japon. PHM Revue Horticole 374:55-56. Amar, Z. 2000. Giddule Erez-Yisra’el bime habenayim [Agricultural produce in the Land of Israel in the Middle Ages]. Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben- Zvi. p.274-277. Arveiller, R. 1969. Les noms français de l’aubergine. Revue de Linguistique Romane t. 33:225- 244. Buell, P.D. and Anderson, E.N. 2000. A soup from the Qan. Kegan Paul Intl., London & New York. Bretschneider, E. 1882. Bot. Sin. 59. Cited by Hedrick (1919). Candolle, A. De 1883. Origine des Plantes Cultivées. Librairie Germer Baillère et Cie. Paris. Caneva, G. 1992. Il Mondo di Cerere nella Loggia di Psiche. Fratelli Palombi, Rome. Dalechamps, J. 1586. Historia generalis plantarum. Pars altera continens reliquos novem libros. Lugduni. Daunay, M.C., Lester, R.N. and Ano, G. 2001. Eggplant. p.199-221. In: A. Charrier, M. Jacquot, S. Hamon and D. Nicolas (eds.), Tropical Plant Breeding, CIRAD, Science Publishers, Inc, Enfield, New Hampshire, USA; Plymouth, UK. Daunay, M.C., Janick, J. and Laterrot, H. 2007. Iconography of the Solanaceae from antiquity to the 17th century: A rich source of information on genetic diversity and uses. <strong>Acta</strong> Hort. 745:59-88. Doi, Matasaburô. 1991 (1st ed. 1983). Nôgyô zu’e. In: Nôsan bunka kyôkai (ed.), Nihon nôsho zenshû vol. 26, Tokyo. [A Japanese illustrated agriculture treatise of the beginning of the 18th century.] Encyclopedia Iranica 1988. Badenjan, eggplant, aubergine. Vol. III.4., Ed. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. p.366-367. Frommel, C.L. 2003. La Villa Farnesina a Roma. Franco Cosimo Panini, Modena, Italy. Fuchs, L. 1543. New Kraüterbuch, Basel. [Source: L. Fuchs, The New Herbal, Ed. Taschen, 2001]. Gerard(e), J. 1597. The Herball of General Historie of Plants. Norton London. Hedrick, U.P. 1919. Sturtevant’s Notes on Edible Plants. 27th Annu. Rep. New York Agr. Expt. Sta. Vol. 2 part II. J.B. Lyon Co., Albany, New York. Hennig, J.L. 1994. Dictionnaire Littéraire et Érotique des Fruits et Légumes. Ed. Albin Michel, Paris. Hu Sihui 1330. Yinshan Zhengyao. [Source: A soup for the Qan, English translation by P.D. Buell & E.N. Anderson, Kegan Paul Intl., London & New York, 2000.] Ibn Al Awam (beginning 12th century). Le Livre de l’Agriculture (Kitab al-Filaha). Traduit de l’Arabe par J.-J. Clément-Mullet. T. II. Paris 1864-1867. Janick, J. 2005. The origins of fruits, fruit growing, and fruit breeding. Plant Breed. Rev. 25:255-320. CHRONICA HORTICULTURAE •VOL 47 • NUMBER 3 • 2007 • 21
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Page 3 and 4: NEWS FROM THE BOARD Reaching and Se
Page 5 and 6: ISSUES Pyrethrum Production: Tasman
Page 7 and 8: Pyrethrum in full flower in Decembe
Page 9 and 10: HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE FOCUS Benefic
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Page 23 and 24: THE WORLD OF HORTICULTURE Greenhous
Page 25 and 26: Table 2. Area of greenhouse vegetab
Page 27 and 28: aid the growers in providing a stea
Page 29 and 30: Black Sea Agricultural Research Ins
Page 31 and 32: Jules Janick Receives Honorary Degr
Page 33 and 34: and Vinification” and Volume 2
Page 35 and 36: Section Medicinal and Aromatic Firs
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