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| Pierre Belon to Crete(1517-1564). |
Pierre Belon is one of the unsung heroes of France’s past - the Indiana Jones of his time. He was a doctor and an adverturer who hunted the world for medicinal herbs and plants. He became France's first official botanist. His story dates back to the Renaissance and King's Expedition of 1546:
That year, King Francois I sent a mission of cultural ambassadors to Constantinople to secure his alliance with the Grand Sultan of the Turkish Empire. Belon’s role in the King’s mission: to gather healing treasures from the East and learn how to harness their curative powers.
February, 1547: Belon left the mission to explore the plant life of the Greek Islands. He obtained there the first of his many discoveries: a sticky, brown resin used to make perfumes. The Greeks collected the resin by driving goats into the forests overgrown with labdanum bushes. Then, they scraped the resin from the beasts' coats, using a special wooden comb with long, straight teeth. It was difficult work done only in summer, under the murderous heat of the Mediterranean sun. This made the resin rare and, unbeknownst to Belon, quite valuable.
Indeed, Barbary pirates considered the resin more valuable that gold. They laid siege to Belon’s ship, carrying off both his resin and his companions. Left alone in an empty boat, Belon was forced to navigate the sea on his own. He traveled slowly and at night, following the stars and avoiding pirates. Back in Crete, he learned that even the Greeks deemed the labdanum resin so valuable that anyone caught stealing it was condemned to death.
The science of Botany was born. And to honor France’s first official Botanist, the King offered Belon a tract of royal land to the west of Paris, now the Bois de Boulogne, to cultivate a botanical garden filled with natural treasures from around the world. But Belon’s work would never begin.
That year, King Francois I sent a mission of cultural ambassadors to Constantinople to secure his alliance with the Grand Sultan of the Turkish Empire. Belon’s role in the King’s mission: to gather healing treasures from the East and learn how to harness their curative powers.
February, 1547: Belon left the mission to explore the plant life of the Greek Islands. He obtained there the first of his many discoveries: a sticky, brown resin used to make perfumes. The Greeks collected the resin by driving goats into the forests overgrown with labdanum bushes. Then, they scraped the resin from the beasts' coats, using a special wooden comb with long, straight teeth. It was difficult work done only in summer, under the murderous heat of the Mediterranean sun. This made the resin rare and, unbeknownst to Belon, quite valuable.
Indeed, Barbary pirates considered the resin more valuable that gold. They laid siege to Belon’s ship, carrying off both his resin and his companions. Left alone in an empty boat, Belon was forced to navigate the sea on his own. He traveled slowly and at night, following the stars and avoiding pirates. Back in Crete, he learned that even the Greeks deemed the labdanum resin so valuable that anyone caught stealing it was condemned to death.
The science of Botany was born. And to honor France’s first official Botanist, the King offered Belon a tract of royal land to the west of Paris, now the Bois de Boulogne, to cultivate a botanical garden filled with natural treasures from around the world. But Belon’s work would never begin.
Pierre Belon From Wikipedia
Pierre Belon, Les observations de plusieurs singularitez…, Paris, G. Corrozet, 1553, σελ. 10v
«Entre les notables choses que l’on peut voir en Crète est la manière de faire le ladanon, qui est une drogue les plus renommées qui soient en nos parfums. Il n’y est pas fait de la plante de lédon, ainsi que les Anciens ont estimé, mais d’un autre petit arbrisseau nommé cistus, dont y a si grande quantité que les montagnes du pays en sont toutes couvertes. Sa nature est telle qu’étant vert en toutes saisons, après qu’il a perdu ses fleurs et feuilles du printemps, et s’est dépouillée de ses feuilles d’hiver, il se revêt d’autres nouvelles feuilles quasi lanugineuses pour l’été, qui s’engraissent à la chaleur du soleil d’une uligineuse rosée par-dessus; et d’autant que le chaud est plus violent l’été, d’autant plus croît la susdite rosée dessus ces feuilles.
Il y a une espèce de ce cistus croissant sauvage par les landes de l’Oise au pays du Maine, et principalement joignant le bourg de Fouletourte, près de la Soulletière (qui est le lieu de ma naissance), correspondant en toutes marques à celui de Grèce : aussi est-il beaucoup plus petit.
Les Grecs recueillant ledit ladanon ont la manière de préparer un instrument qu’ils nomment en leur vulgaire ergastiri. Cet instrument a le fût quasi comme un râteau sans dents, lequel ils garnissent de plusieurs courroies de cuir qui n’est pas conroyé, qui sont pendantes audit instrument. Ils frottent lesdites courroies doucement contre les arbrisseaux, et la susdite rosée s’attache contre les courroies. C’est un labeur quasi intolérable, car il faut être tout le jour au soleil par les montagnes ès plus chauds jours caniculaires de tout l'été. Tel ouvrage est communément de caloyers, c’est-à-dire des religieux de Grèce. Et l’endroit en Crète où l’on en fasse plus grande quantité est ver le pied du mont Ida, au village nommé Cigualinus, et auprès de Milopotamo».
