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Books > History > History of specific subjects
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Water of Life - A History of Wine-distilling and Spirits from 500 BC to AD 2000 (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R953
Discovery Miles 9 530
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Water of Life - A History of Wine-distilling and Spirits from 500 BC to AD 2000 (Hardcover)
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This important book looks at the entire history of distilling in
the Middle East and Europe from the earliest experiments by the
Pythagorean alchemists of Ptolomaic Egypt in the fourth century BC
to the commerical production of spirits to drink in the British
Isles to the year 2000. It is important because Ms Wilson has
explored byways of early history that have been little noticed by
previous scholars. She links the art of distilling to alchemical
practice; to the Dionysian cults of ancient Greece and Rome; to the
development of the art by the Gnostic mystic Christian sects (who
greatly influenced the Coptic church in lower Egypt and Ethiopia);
to the researches of the Persians and Arabs; to the preservation of
the art by various heretic cults in western Europe such as the
Bogomils and Cathars and, of course, the Templars; then into more
mainstream development by the medieval and Renaissance alchemists;
before comparative relaxation into the domestic history of
distilling in England for the manufacture of strong liquor and the
making of medicinal and perfumed waters by members of the landed
gentry. This is Dan Brown and the "Da Vinci Code" but written by a
scholar and dealing with real-life matters not soft brain-candy.
There are twelve chapters divided into three sections. The first is
'The Ancient and Early Medieval World'; 'The Eastern Mediterranean
Region'; 'The Later Middle Ages'; 'Western Europe'; and 'From Early
Modern Times to AD2000: The British Isles'. While treating
extensively of the mystical, cultish and religious origins of
distilling, as well as its links to early science, Ms Wilson looks
closely at all forms of distilling in the British Isles. This work
includes the manufacture of spiritous liquors such as whisky, gin,
and others and the central part played in country house domestic
life by cordial waters and other distillations manufactured with
great skill by generations of housewives as home medicine and
perfumery. The book does not treat, at any length, the history of
spiritous liquors, including brandy, on mainland Europe.
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