Subject: pineapple in Pompeii

From: [email-masked] (Yuri Kuchinsky)
Date: 12 Oct 1996 05:14:16 GMT

Yuri Kuchinsky ([email-masked]) wrote:
: George Black ([email-masked]) wrote:

: : I've gone through most of my reference but I find nothing about
: pineapples in : Pompei.

: Yesterday I actually tried to look it up, but the volume I needed was in
: another library at the U of T. I have to make another trip sometime later.

Here's a follow-up to the pineapple discussion. Elmer Drew Merrill 
discusses it in a book about Cooks's voyages published in '54. In this 
book he admits that the Pompeii fresco looks very much like pineapple. 
There's also another American plant that is apparently portrayed on the 
same fresco (sap-apple?). 

U of Toronto doesn't have the Italian book where this info was published,
in '50. But the following info arrived by e-mail. I remove the name of
the person from whom it arrived, as they apparently don't want to post in
Usenet.

-------- begin quote ------

>> The reference in the _Man across the sea_ is slightly garbled (quite
>>apart from my imperfect memory). The correct reference is

>> D. Casello, La frutta nelle pitture Pompeiane
>>
>> in
>> Pompeiana : raccolta di studi per il secondo centenario degli scavi
>>di Pompei / [edited by Amedeo Maiuri].  Napoli : Gaetano Macchiaroli
>>Editore, 1950.
>>
>>
>>It discusses the fruit appearing in the paintings. There's only  a
>>couple of paragraphs about the supposed pineapple, with one poor
>>quality illustration. Quote from p. 367:
>>"sul larario a destra entrando nella Casa dell'Efebo, si trova
>>dipinta una infruttescenza di Ananasso (fig. 46) di medie dimensioni,
>>di colore rosso, provvista del caratteristico ciuffo di foglie, la
>>quale dimostra che questa specie tropicale e anche orginaria
>>dell'Asia o dall'Africa e che conosciuta dai nostra avi prima della
>>scoperta dell'America."

>>--with no further supporting argument.

--------- end quote --------

I think the Italian text makes a mistake. Pineapple is now known to be a
native American plant. 

All the best,

Yuri.
--
           **    Yuri Kuchinsky in Toronto   **
  -- a webpage like any other...  http://www.io.org/~yuku  --
 
Most of the evils of life arise from man's being 
unable to sit still in a room    ||    B. Pascal

---

From: [email-masked] (George Black)
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 96 21:38:43 GMT

>I think the Italian text makes a mistake. Pineapple is now known to be a
Thanks. Yes, I had a suspicion that it would be something like that.
Regards.

Some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week

[email-masked]