Editing Sugar (section)

==== Europe ====

[[File:Trionfi di Cibele e Juno.jpg|thumb|Two elaborate sugar ''[[trionfo|triomfi]]'' of goddesses for a dinner given by the [[Earl of Castlemaine]], British ambassador in Rome, 1687]]

[[Nearchus]], admiral of [[Alexander the Great]], knew of sugar during the year 325 BC because of his participation in [[Indian campaign of Alexander the Great#Sources|the campaign of India]] led by Alexander (''[[Arrian]], [[Anabasis Alexandri|Anabasis]]'').<ref>Jean Meyer, Histoire du sucre, ed. Desjonquières, 1989</ref><ref>Anabasis Alexandri, translated by E.J. Chinnock (1893)</ref> In addition to the Greek physician [[Pedanius Dioscorides]], the Roman [[Pliny the Elder]] also described sugar in his 1st century CE [[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]: "''Sugar is made in Arabia as well, but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. Sugar is used only for medical purposes.''"<ref name=faas>{{cite book | last1=Faas | first1=P. | last2=Whiteside | first2=S. | title=Around the Roman Table: Food and Feasting in Ancient Rome | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-226-23347-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXGlAr17oekC&pg=PA149 | page=149}}</ref> [[Crusades|Crusaders]] brought sugar back to Europe after their campaigns in the [[Holy Land]], where they encountered caravans carrying "sweet salt". Early in the 12th century, the [[Republic of Venice]] acquired some villages near [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] and set up estates to produce sugar for export to Europe. It supplemented the use of honey, which had previously been the only available sweetener.<ref name="Ponting 2000 481">{{cite book |last=Ponting |first=Clive |author-link=Clive Ponting |title=World history: a new perspective |orig-year=2000 |year=2000 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=978-0-7011-6834-6 |page=481}}</ref> Crusade chronicler [[William of Tyre]], writing in the late 12th century, described sugar as "very necessary for the use and health of mankind".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barber |first1=Malcolm |edition=2nd |title=The two cities: medieval Europe, 1050–1320 |year=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-17415-2 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Kkm7cgT_xkC&pg=PA14}}</ref> In the 15th century, [[Venice]] was the chief sugar refining and distribution center in Europe.<ref name=gr1/>

There was a drastic change in the mid-15th century, when [[Madeira]] and the [[Canary Islands]] were settled from Europe and sugar introduced there.<ref>Strong, 195</ref><ref name="Manning-2006">{{Cite book|last=Manning|first=Patrick|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/745696019|title=Themes in West Africa's history|date=2006|publisher=Ohio University|others=Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku.|isbn=978-0-8214-4566-2|location=Athens|pages=102–103|chapter=Slavery & Slave Trade in West Africa 1450-1930|oclc=745696019|access-date=24 August 2020|archive-date=31 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031183147/https://www.worldcat.org/title/themes-in-west-africas-history/oclc/745696019|url-status=live}}</ref> After this an "all-consuming passion for sugar ... swept through society" as it became far more easily available, though initially still very expensive.<ref>Strong, 194</ref> By 1492, Madeira was producing over {{convert|3000000|lb|kg|order=flip}} of sugar annually.<ref>Frankopan, 200. "By the time Columbus set sail, Madeira alone was producing more than 3 million pounds in weight of sugar per year—albeit at the cost of what one scholar has described as early modern 'ecocide,' as forests were cleared and non-native animal species like rabbits and rats multiplied in such numbers that they were seen as a form of divine punishment."</ref> [[Genoa]], one of the centers of distribution, became known for candied fruit, while Venice specialized in pastries, sweets (candies), and [[sugar sculpture]]s. Sugar was considered to have "valuable medicinal properties" as a "warm" food under prevailing categories, being "helpful to the stomach, to cure cold diseases, and sooth lung complaints".<ref>Strong, 194–195, 195 quoted</ref>

A feast given in [[Tours]] in 1457 by [[Gaston IV, Count of Foix|Gaston de Foix]], which is "probably the best and most complete account we have of a late medieval banquet" includes the first mention of sugar sculptures, as the final food brought in was "a heraldic menagerie sculpted in sugar: lions, stags, monkeys ... each holding in paw or beak the arms of the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian king]]".<ref>Strong, 75</ref> Other recorded grand feasts in the decades following included similar pieces.<ref>Strong, 133–134, 195–197</ref> Originally the sculptures seem to have been eaten in the meal, but later they become merely table decorations, the most elaborate called ''[[trionfo|trionfi]]''. Several significant sculptors are known to have produced them; in some cases their preliminary drawings survive. Early ones were in brown sugar, partly [[casting|cast]] in molds, with the final touches carved. They continued to be used until at least the Coronation Banquet for [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom]] in 1903; among other sculptures every guest was given a sugar crown to take away.<ref>Strong, 309</ref>