So as I've mentioned elsewhere on the blog, I am a real life herbal educator and consultant, also. One of the tasks ahead of me now is to puzzle out which of my concoctions are "period" and which are more modern.
I took two of the more ubiquitous preparations in modern herbals and attempted to trace them back to see how the legends stood up to scrutiny. I wrote an article about this that will be published in the March/April issue of The Essential Herbal, but I thought I would share some of my research here:
Queen of Hungary's Waters
While the preparation above is undoubtedly "period", it should be pointed out that the period preparation in no way resembles the acetum that the mundane herbalist Rosemary Gladstar has popularized in modern herbal publications.
The original formula is a fairly typical rosemary "water" preparation which are mentioned in Bankes Herbal published in 1525 and making it requires distillation of an alcohol preparation.
Some scholars question if distillation would have been known in Hungary at that time, but as the alembic was most likely invented by some member of the Jabirian Corpus. Jabir is the Arab alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan Al-Azdi who lived from 721-815 C.E. and aqua vitae has been distilled since the late 9th century, it seems a safe assumption to me.
I wonder if those people who question the timeline are confusing Queen Elizabeth wife of Charles with St. Elizabeth, an earlier queen of Hungary. Or perhaps people confuse the history of distilling alcohol as a beverage, with earlier distillations used as medicines in apothecaries which were in fact alcohol, but not served socially.
For example in Irish history it is difficult to distinguish this because aqua vita or "uisce beatha" as the Irish call it has come to be known as Irish whiskey, however the the first preparations were used medicinally by the monks who produced them.
Four Thieves Vinegar
The story behind this preparation is outlined in the excerpt above Another publication around this time attributes the formulation of this preparation to one Mr. Robert Forthave who lived in 1749, claiming the name of the preparation is just a "corruption" of his name. (Limbird)
Jean Valnet, a noted aromatherapist, claims to have found the original formula in the archives of the Parliament of Toulouse 1628-1631 as follows: 3 pints white wine vinegar, a handful each of wormwood, meadowsweet, juniper berries, wild marjoram and sage with 50 cloves, 2 oz each of elecampane root, angelica, rosemary, horehound and 3 grams of camphor. (Valnet). I've not been able to locate a translation of these documents, so cannot verify his source. So if Valnet is to be believed, the story may be true. Regardless the use of these aromatic vinegars such as the "Acetum Aromaticum" has been documented as "period" preparations. I would probably opt for that name as being more appropriate for SCA purposes.
I took two of the more ubiquitous preparations in modern herbals and attempted to trace them back to see how the legends stood up to scrutiny. I wrote an article about this that will be published in the March/April issue of The Essential Herbal, but I thought I would share some of my research here:
Queen of Hungary's Waters
 |
| Source- The Saturday magazine Volume 18 -1841 |
While the preparation above is undoubtedly "period", it should be pointed out that the period preparation in no way resembles the acetum that the mundane herbalist Rosemary Gladstar has popularized in modern herbal publications.
The original formula is a fairly typical rosemary "water" preparation which are mentioned in Bankes Herbal published in 1525 and making it requires distillation of an alcohol preparation.
Some scholars question if distillation would have been known in Hungary at that time, but as the alembic was most likely invented by some member of the Jabirian Corpus. Jabir is the Arab alchemist Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan Al-Azdi who lived from 721-815 C.E. and aqua vitae has been distilled since the late 9th century, it seems a safe assumption to me.
I wonder if those people who question the timeline are confusing Queen Elizabeth wife of Charles with St. Elizabeth, an earlier queen of Hungary. Or perhaps people confuse the history of distilling alcohol as a beverage, with earlier distillations used as medicines in apothecaries which were in fact alcohol, but not served socially.
For example in Irish history it is difficult to distinguish this because aqua vita or "uisce beatha" as the Irish call it has come to be known as Irish whiskey, however the the first preparations were used medicinally by the monks who produced them.
Four Thieves Vinegar
 |
| Source : Pharmacologia Vol. II -1825 John
Ayrton Paris |
The story behind this preparation is outlined in the excerpt above Another publication around this time attributes the formulation of this preparation to one Mr. Robert Forthave who lived in 1749, claiming the name of the preparation is just a "corruption" of his name. (Limbird)
Jean Valnet, a noted aromatherapist, claims to have found the original formula in the archives of the Parliament of Toulouse 1628-1631 as follows: 3 pints white wine vinegar, a handful each of wormwood, meadowsweet, juniper berries, wild marjoram and sage with 50 cloves, 2 oz each of elecampane root, angelica, rosemary, horehound and 3 grams of camphor. (Valnet). I've not been able to locate a translation of these documents, so cannot verify his source. So if Valnet is to be believed, the story may be true. Regardless the use of these aromatic vinegars such as the "Acetum Aromaticum" has been documented as "period" preparations. I would probably opt for that name as being more appropriate for SCA purposes.
Beckmann, J. (1846 ). History of Inventions,
Discoveries and Origins. London: Henry G Bohn.
Hartshorne, H. (1881). The Household Cyclopedia.
Thomas Kelly.
Limbird, J. (1828). Four Thieves' Vinegar. The Mirror of
Literature, Amusement and Instruction.
Paris, J. A. (1825). Pharmacologia: corrected and
extended.... Volume 2. New York: Samuel Wood & Son.
Valnet, J. (1980). The Practice of Aromatherapy.
London: White Crescent Press Ltd.
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