Page 90 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 90
maize to the people!
isting historical literature, which is mostly not recent, revealing a scarce in-
terest in this topic over the last decades. The article starts by presenting the
situation as shown by the earliest known mentions of maize in the wider
area between the eastern Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonian Plain.
It continues by reconstructing the diffusion of maize as a crop, a foodstuff,
and a trade good, proceeding through half-century timespans and distin-
guishing by different provinces or micro-areas, in order to get a picture of
the progression and of the provenience of maize diffusion. In some cas-
es, the reconstruction overlaps today’s Slovenian boundaries to better cov-
er the wider Slovenian ethnic area, but more so to achieve a better com-
prehension and a fuller picture of the dynamics of diffusion.1 In the end,
I integrate existing interpretations with some preliminary new ones, out-
lined based on the achieved results.
Surrounded by early mentions of maize in the eastern
Alpine-Adriatic area
The earliest mention of maize in the area, known so far, dates back to the
1559, when an unknown amount of seeds was sent for test planting to a vil-
lage (Kraig) near the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Central Carinthia.
Although this should mean that maize was “a great rarity” there at that
time (Brunner 1994, 7, citing Wadl), already a dozen years later (1572) in
a village near the Styrian capital of Graz (Hardt, Thal parish) the earliest
known proof of maize cultivation was detected. Two peasant women were
sent on trial for having illicitly picked up 150 branches they used to support
maize seedlings, or literally “Turkish grain or what for an odd seed they
planted” (Brunner 1994, 9-10). The next year some tithe registers in South
Tyrol started mentioning maize (1573-1585), which must have reached the
area from the Italian regions (Brunner 1994, 7, Sandgruber 1982, 45); how-
ever, we have already moved a bit too far from the Slovenian regions. Much
closer is the mention of maize in 1602 in a register of grain prices from
the town of Gradisca d’Isonzo in the County of Gorizia (Valenčič 1970,
258). One might say that the Slovenian regions were very closely surround-
ed by these earliest mentions – that is to the northwest (Carinthia), north-
east (Styria) and southwest (County of Gorizia).
1 I wish to thank Peter Teibenbacher who very kindly handed me the literature on
Austrian Styria used in this article.
88
isting historical literature, which is mostly not recent, revealing a scarce in-
terest in this topic over the last decades. The article starts by presenting the
situation as shown by the earliest known mentions of maize in the wider
area between the eastern Alps, the Adriatic Sea and the Pannonian Plain.
It continues by reconstructing the diffusion of maize as a crop, a foodstuff,
and a trade good, proceeding through half-century timespans and distin-
guishing by different provinces or micro-areas, in order to get a picture of
the progression and of the provenience of maize diffusion. In some cas-
es, the reconstruction overlaps today’s Slovenian boundaries to better cov-
er the wider Slovenian ethnic area, but more so to achieve a better com-
prehension and a fuller picture of the dynamics of diffusion.1 In the end,
I integrate existing interpretations with some preliminary new ones, out-
lined based on the achieved results.
Surrounded by early mentions of maize in the eastern
Alpine-Adriatic area
The earliest mention of maize in the area, known so far, dates back to the
1559, when an unknown amount of seeds was sent for test planting to a vil-
lage (Kraig) near the town of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Central Carinthia.
Although this should mean that maize was “a great rarity” there at that
time (Brunner 1994, 7, citing Wadl), already a dozen years later (1572) in
a village near the Styrian capital of Graz (Hardt, Thal parish) the earliest
known proof of maize cultivation was detected. Two peasant women were
sent on trial for having illicitly picked up 150 branches they used to support
maize seedlings, or literally “Turkish grain or what for an odd seed they
planted” (Brunner 1994, 9-10). The next year some tithe registers in South
Tyrol started mentioning maize (1573-1585), which must have reached the
area from the Italian regions (Brunner 1994, 7, Sandgruber 1982, 45); how-
ever, we have already moved a bit too far from the Slovenian regions. Much
closer is the mention of maize in 1602 in a register of grain prices from
the town of Gradisca d’Isonzo in the County of Gorizia (Valenčič 1970,
258). One might say that the Slovenian regions were very closely surround-
ed by these earliest mentions – that is to the northwest (Carinthia), north-
east (Styria) and southwest (County of Gorizia).
1 I wish to thank Peter Teibenbacher who very kindly handed me the literature on
Austrian Styria used in this article.
88
