Gisele Cristina da Conceição

Das virtudes da ardência: uso e disseminação dos frutos de Capsicum nos séculos XVI e XVII

From the fifteenth century onward occurred on a global scale the spread of farming, marketing and use of many plants. Although historiography has a reasonable volume of published studies on the spices of the East, as well as on the economic impact of these products in the Renaissance, there is still space for an approach related to the spread and use of American plants, which also became culturally and economically important spices. Among these plants, the species of Capsicum genus have an outstanding importance. Based on historical sources of writers, physicians, herbalists and natural philosophers of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the article analyzes the spread and cultivation of pepper species from the New World, beginning with the fifteenth century Portuguese navigations.

America conquers the World: A History of spread of American spices from the navigations of the sixteenth century.

From the beginning of the fifteenth century, it is observed a phenomenon that had as one of its main features, the spread of trade, cultivation and consumption of some specific varieties of plants. Although, modern historiography has a reasonable volume of studies published about the spices of the East as well as the economic impact of these in the Renaissance, an issue still remains, that is related to the dissemination and use of some American plants which in turn have also become spices of considerable economic, cultural and gastronomical importance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14685/rebrapa.v2i1.42