2019/11/01 by Noah Blan · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis #Medieval Literature and History #Historical and Religious Studies of Rome
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/emed.12374
openalex publication_date 2019/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
What happened to the many ‘Mediterranean’ fruits the Romans brought to north‐west Europe when the empire that supported their dissemination ended? Charlemagne's capitulary De villis called for the cultivation of various fruit trees, including peach ( Prunus persica ). That fruit hits the sweet spot between plants that were rare in early medieval northern Francia, like date palm, and those that were commonplace, like plum. Thus, the peach is an excellent proxy for Charlemagne's imperial and ecological aspirations. Using both written and archaeobotanical evidence for peaches in Francia, this article analyses how adapting exotic plants to northern climates served the purposes of early medieval rulers .