82. Wild Carrot of Parsnip (Daucus cartoa L, or Pastinaca sativa L, pastinaca sivatica, Feldmoru.

This plantm which is called pastinace silvatice or wild carrots, grows in sandy soils and hills.

1. If a woman has difficulty in giving birth, thae the plant we call pasticanna sivatica (willd carrot or parsnip), simmer it in water, and give it so that she can bathe herself with it. She will be healed.

2. For a woman's cleansing, take the same plant, pastinaca, simmer it in water, and when it is soft, mix it well and give it to drink. She will be cleansed."

It is known that purple or red and yellow carrots were cultivated in Iran and Arabia in the 10th century and in Syria in the 11th. By the 12th century carrots were reported in Spain, followed by Italy in the 13th, France, Germany and Holland by the 14th century.  English references occur in the 15th century.

11th Century

In About 1086, Ibn al Bassal an Islamic Botanist and scholar who lived in Seville, Spain from wrote a lengthy treatise on agronomy (Diwan al-filaha) “Libro de Agricultura” - The Book on Agriculture, a treatise on agriculture.

It is full of information on the cultivation of plants and trees, pharmacological data and many items on botany. Very little is known about his life. However, judging from the meaning of his Arabic name Ibn Bassal (i.e. the Son of the Onion Grower), he seems to be a learned agriculturalist from a farming family.

The book, though not a cookbook per se, it contains information about the different kinds of foodstuff and how to produce them and preserve them, in addition to the agricultural methods in cultivation, irrigation, pets control and land tilling in Andalusia in the 11th century. The treatise by Ibn Bassal is singular in that it contains no reference to earlier agronomists; it appears to be based exclusively on the personal experiences of the author, who is revealed as the most original and objective of all the Hispano-Arabic specialists.

The treatise was lost for many years until a mediaeval Castilian translation of it was discovered by Prof. Millis in the Cathedral Library of Toledo and extracts of it were published by him in 1942.

Bassal’s ancient text deals with all the fundamentals of horticulture and propagation. In Chapter XIII he deals with Garden plants - Rapes, carrots, radishes, garlic, onions, leeks, parsnip, capsicum (pimento), madder. The interesting feature of it is its character. It is matter of fact, practical, didactic, concise; there is no nonsense in it and no digressions on materia medica, no magic and no astrology.

Bodleian Scripts  - 11th Century

The late 11th century witnessed an intriguing script from Bury St Edmonds in England - MS Bodley 130 - a handwritten manuscript containing a copy of a much earlier Latin text; its illustrations are similarly inherited. The original illustrated text had been compiled in the late Roman period (4th or 5th century) relying on Greek sources.

Known as "Pseudo.-Apuleius, Dioscorides, Herbals (extracts); De virtutibus bestiarum in arte medicinae, in Latin and English",  St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury; c. 1070-1100.  This apparently shows a diagram of an orange carrot, which, according to most other historical records did not appear until the 15th century. So another mystery in the origins of modern carrot. 

The script indicated that

 "It grows in stony places and mounds." and "For women who suffer at childbirth and are not purged. - With 'Herba pastinaca', cooked, together with the same water in which it was cooked, you take 30 peppercorns; mix together and give to drink; she will be purged.

The same recipe as written above also works against toothache."

Further evidence of the use, by the ancients of Pastinaca for both carrot and parsnip.
 

Much more background information, including a full translation of the script together with a larger photo are included on a separate page here.   Important Copyright Notice: The image (left) appears with the kind permission of the Bodleian Library and is copyright and any use is restricted by law. Any unauthorised copying or reproduction will constitute an infringement of copyright. The script is held by the Bodleian Library of Oxford University as part of its collection of illuminated mediaeval manuscripts.

Similar scripts - MS. Ashmole 1462 and MS Ashmole 1431 contain the same Pseudo-Apuleian text as MS. Bodl. 130, though with some slight variations in wording.

You will notice a typo! "Pasnatica" instead of "Pastinaca" - a typical transcription error in such scripts.  This again gives a remedy for toothache. Otherwise the same recipes and place names as in the MS Bodley script referred to above.

The carrot leaves and flower do look quite accurate and no doubt orange is the root colour! Click on photos for full picture - note this a large file and will take a while to download.

Centuries passed before the carrot received additional mention in historical literature.

In the 12th century there was a period of Arab expansion into the Middle East and Asia.

Moorish invaders (from Morocco) and then Arabian traders brought seeds of purple and a mutants yellow carrots to the Mediterranean via the coast of North Africa, along with spinach and aubergines. They quickly spread across Europe from Spain, into Holland, France and finally England. 

During that period the carrot travelled westward into the Mediterranean countries. Arab writer, in Spain Ibn al-Awam , citing a much older work (probably Ibn al Bassal an Islamic Botanist mentioned above) gave a definitive description of two varieties of carrots he encountered in the early part of the 12th century: a red one (probably purple) he says is tasty and juicy and the other, a yellow and green carrot, he calls coarser and of inferior flavour. Al-Awam writes that carrots were served with a dressing of oil and vinegar or added to vegetable mixtures and cereals, probably grains.

Al-Awam who lived in Andalusia, a region in southern Spain, noted that Arab travellers brought carrots from their homeland to the European continent. The curious carrot traversed the route eastward via European travellers and explorers to set its roots into India and the Far East during the 13th century. By the 14th century the Netherlands, France and Germany were introduced to the carrot. It took another century to reach England's shores during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Henry Daniel 1315 (approx) - 1385 Although little is known of Daniel's life, a good deal can be deduced from his surviving works, which include translations of medical treatises from the Latin and an extensive herbal, De re Herbaria (1375). He must originally have been comparatively well-to-do, but later became poor and joined the Dominican Order.  It was probably after entering religion that he was able to get access to the many authorities which he consulted in the compilation of his herbal.

Daniel was a scholar of distinction and a student of medicine. He sought out works which, in many cases, must have been rare in English libraries, and his surviving translations are correct, clear, and forcibly expressed.  In his youth Daniel studied medicine for seven years and in his later life had a large garden at Stepney, London, in which he grew 252 different kinds of plants, a very large number for the period.

Carrots were named by Daniel in the list of habitats as - "growing in dry places, and in meers."

By the 13th century carrots were being grown in fields, orchards, gardens, and vineyards in Germany and France. At that time the plant was known also in China, where it was supposed to have come from Persia. Doctors in the Middle Ages prescribed carrots as a medicine for every possible affliction, from syphilis to dog bites! 

The curious carrot traversed the route eastward via European travellers and explorers to set its roots into India and the Far East during the 13th century.

The 14th century  -  In approx 1350 it is known from archaeological evidence that they consumed a variety of vegetables, both grown in gardens and gathered in the wild in the British Isles. Vegetables known from Jorvík (modern York) or Dublin include carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, spinach, wild celery, cabbage, radishes, fava beans, and peas.

In the Netherlands, France and Germany were introduced to the carrot. It took another century to reach England's shores during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. carrots had spread across north-western Europe. Poor country dwelling folk used the roots for soups that formed the main staple diet.

In the 15th century the early orange varieties were introduced to England by Flemish refugees who grew them in quantity mainly in Kent and Surrey.  Several Herbalists mention "karettes" in their lists of roots for a garden.

Carrot is also mentioned by Italian cook Bartolomeo Sacchi (a.k.a Platina) in his dish "Cariota" - Here are some words and, and recipes of sorts, for both the carrot and the parsnip. He considers them simply variations of the same medicinally useful vegetable.

(From De Honesta Voluptate (On Honest Indulgence and Good Health), Bartolomeo Platina,  - On Right Pleasure and Good Health; Platina 1475, from the Milham translation).
 

After Columbus' first visit to the Caribbean in 1492, the islands became the melting pot of the world with explorers from Europe, Asia, Africa, and America who each brought plants, animals, and customs from their homelands.