DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0073
XXIV.] CRETAN MALMESEY OF THE l6TH CENTURY. 55
in 1569, mentions the exportation of Malmesey as the
common trade of the island43. The wood annually im-
ported in order to make casks to hold it, was a con-
siderable article of commerce. Sandys, who wrote more
than forty years later41, after speaking of the other pro-
duce of Crete, subjoins, "but that which principally
enricheth the country is their Muscadines and Malmsies,
wines that seldom come vnto vs vncuted45, but excellent
where not, as within the streights, and compared vnto
Nectar.
Creete I confesse Joues fortresse to be
For Nectar onely is transferd from thee46."
The testimony of the English traveller is confirmed by
that of a contemporary Italian Bishop, who was born
in Crete, and who, when he speaks of his native land
as vini ferax, immediately adds,
Ignosce vini si excidit no-men mihi,
Nectar volebara dicere, aut si quid magis
Beat liquore lauta divum prandia47.
43 Hakluyt's Collection of early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries
of the English Nation, Vol. n. p. 230. ed. Lond. 1810.
44 Sandys, a relation of a Journey begun An. Born. 1610. containing
a description of the Turkish Empire, of Aegypt, of the Holy Land, of the
remote parts of Italy, and Hands adioyning. The third edition. London,
1632. The extract is from p. 224.
45 This word will be explained by Belon, f. 21. " Osons asseurer que
celuy qui est trasporte" le plus loing, comme en Almagne, France, Angle-
terre, a este premierement cuici: Car les nauires qui abordent en Crete
pour trasporter la Maluaisie en estrange pays, se veulent expressement
charger de celle de Rethymo, sachants bien qu'elle se garde moult long
temps en sa bonte, et que d'autant qu'elle est plus trauaille'e, elle est d'autant
plus excellente." He differs from the English traveller in the assertion of
his last sentence.
46 Vera equidem fateor Jovis incunabula magni:
Nam liquor haud alibi nectaris ille venit. J. C. Scaliger.
47 Aloysius Lollinus, "clarissimus Praesul et Praesulum decus,"
m his verses entitled de Creta Insula, in Cornel. Cret. Sacr. Vol. 11. p. 442.
He was Bishop of Belluno for many years, and among other "egregia ingenii
sui monumenta" were many writings "quae in Cretensium laudem cadunt.'"
See Cornel. 1. c.
in 1569, mentions the exportation of Malmesey as the
common trade of the island43. The wood annually im-
ported in order to make casks to hold it, was a con-
siderable article of commerce. Sandys, who wrote more
than forty years later41, after speaking of the other pro-
duce of Crete, subjoins, "but that which principally
enricheth the country is their Muscadines and Malmsies,
wines that seldom come vnto vs vncuted45, but excellent
where not, as within the streights, and compared vnto
Nectar.
Creete I confesse Joues fortresse to be
For Nectar onely is transferd from thee46."
The testimony of the English traveller is confirmed by
that of a contemporary Italian Bishop, who was born
in Crete, and who, when he speaks of his native land
as vini ferax, immediately adds,
Ignosce vini si excidit no-men mihi,
Nectar volebara dicere, aut si quid magis
Beat liquore lauta divum prandia47.
43 Hakluyt's Collection of early Voyages, Travels, and Discoveries
of the English Nation, Vol. n. p. 230. ed. Lond. 1810.
44 Sandys, a relation of a Journey begun An. Born. 1610. containing
a description of the Turkish Empire, of Aegypt, of the Holy Land, of the
remote parts of Italy, and Hands adioyning. The third edition. London,
1632. The extract is from p. 224.
45 This word will be explained by Belon, f. 21. " Osons asseurer que
celuy qui est trasporte" le plus loing, comme en Almagne, France, Angle-
terre, a este premierement cuici: Car les nauires qui abordent en Crete
pour trasporter la Maluaisie en estrange pays, se veulent expressement
charger de celle de Rethymo, sachants bien qu'elle se garde moult long
temps en sa bonte, et que d'autant qu'elle est plus trauaille'e, elle est d'autant
plus excellente." He differs from the English traveller in the assertion of
his last sentence.
46 Vera equidem fateor Jovis incunabula magni:
Nam liquor haud alibi nectaris ille venit. J. C. Scaliger.
47 Aloysius Lollinus, "clarissimus Praesul et Praesulum decus,"
m his verses entitled de Creta Insula, in Cornel. Cret. Sacr. Vol. 11. p. 442.
He was Bishop of Belluno for many years, and among other "egregia ingenii
sui monumenta" were many writings "quae in Cretensium laudem cadunt.'"
See Cornel. 1. c.