Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Medicinal and Sacred Drugs
- Part III Divine Blood for Sale
- Appendix I ‘Rariteiten te koop’
- Appendix II Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Bibliography
- General index
- Index of poems by Joannes Six van Chandelier
- Plate Section
Summary
Abstract
This chapter discusses the use of exotic plants and spices as medicines and foodstuffs, as presented in the poetry of Joannes Six van Chandelier. An apology for indigenous herbs at the expense of exotic drugs written by the physician Johan van Beverwijck plays a large role here. I argue that Six attributes the illness in his spleen to his exposure to exotic drugs and spices. In my analysis of poems Six wrote on his illness and his medical treatment, I show how the wholesaler of luxury goods portrays himself as an ascetic on a strict diet consisting of local herbs, as a self-conscious Batavian who avoids luxury food, and as a patient who undergoes severe bloodletting treatments to clean his body and his mind of ‘fiery’ elements.
Keywords: Johan van Beverwijck, debate on indigenous versus exotic drugs, botanical gardens, ambergris, gold, exotics horns
’t Schijnt het wert dan eerst bequaem,
Als men ‘t geeft een vreemde naem;
’t Schijnt het krijgt dan eerst sijn prijs,
Als men dees en geen maeckt wijs
Dattet van het Moren-lant,
Of den Barbarysche strant,
Dattet van den Indiaen
Herwaerts komt dreven aen:
’t Dunckt de slechte Luyden best,
Wat ons geeft een vremt gewest.
It seems that it first becomes effective
When one gives it a foreign name:
It seems it first gets its price,
When one lets the man in the street know
That it came from the land of Moors,
Or from Barbarian shores,
That it came drifting hither
From the Indians:
That which seems to please the crowd best,
Is what a foreign region gives us.
– Jacob CatsThe doctrine of humours
‘Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are’, goes a well-known aphorism. In early modern times, this would have been taken literally. Joannes Six van Chandelier, who paid a lot of attention to how his public persona was perceived, would certainly have taken it seriously, because food was an important part of his identity when it came to his role, not only as a supplier of drugs and spices, a merchant-druggist, but also as a consumer of medicines, a patient. Six had an ailment of the spleen, and in his poetry he devoted a great deal of attention to its course and its treatment. Both identities will be discussed in this chapter.
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- Information
- Dangerous DrugsThe Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620–1695), pp. 115 - 166Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020