LaThe broad bean or fava bean (Vicia faba L.) was one of the first plants to be domesticated. The cultivation of this legume made it possible for man to have readily available a high protein food, animal fodder and a natural fertilizer for the fields. These features, along with the ease with which it could be grown and the production cycle in alternative to grains, determined its wide use for millennia and its broad geographic range. The purpose of this study is to summarize the knowledge we now have of this legume and relate it to the new and important data that has emerged from archeo-botanical research. The geographical range we refer to includes Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and the Near East from Prehistory to the post-Medieval period, with particular focus on the developments starting in the late Middle Ages in Southern Italy. The analysis of the data confirmed the circulation of the small grain fava bean starting in the earliest phases of domestication. This size remained essentially the same for thousands of years. However, starting in the early Middle Ages, there was a significant increase in the size of the bean which was recognized only several centuries later in the agronomy treatises which refer to them as fava minuta and fava grossa. Later, from the Late Middle Ages to the early Modern Era, there was a new phase of varietal improvement of the bean which probably led to that which the Flemish botanist Lobelius in 1591 called Faba major recentiorum.
The middle ages as an era of innovation: A brief history of the Fava bean in light of the latest archeo-botanical data
Grasso A. M.;D'aquino S.;Fiorentino G.
2020-01-01
Abstract
LaThe broad bean or fava bean (Vicia faba L.) was one of the first plants to be domesticated. The cultivation of this legume made it possible for man to have readily available a high protein food, animal fodder and a natural fertilizer for the fields. These features, along with the ease with which it could be grown and the production cycle in alternative to grains, determined its wide use for millennia and its broad geographic range. The purpose of this study is to summarize the knowledge we now have of this legume and relate it to the new and important data that has emerged from archeo-botanical research. The geographical range we refer to includes Europe, the Mediterranean basin, and the Near East from Prehistory to the post-Medieval period, with particular focus on the developments starting in the late Middle Ages in Southern Italy. The analysis of the data confirmed the circulation of the small grain fava bean starting in the earliest phases of domestication. This size remained essentially the same for thousands of years. However, starting in the early Middle Ages, there was a significant increase in the size of the bean which was recognized only several centuries later in the agronomy treatises which refer to them as fava minuta and fava grossa. Later, from the Late Middle Ages to the early Modern Era, there was a new phase of varietal improvement of the bean which probably led to that which the Flemish botanist Lobelius in 1591 called Faba major recentiorum.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
