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The Three Great Cities of Spice–Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam: A Three-Part Course with Michael Krondl

The Three Great Cities of Spice–Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam: A Three-Part Course with Michael Krondl


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after each event.

In the fifteenth century, the globe was transformed because a tiny European elite happened to like the taste of Asian spices. To feed this culinary fashion three European cities made and lost fortunes, fought wars, and committed atrocities. The course explores the history of the three European ports that benefited most from the elite medieval and renaissance taste for exotic spices.

In Venice, Lisbon, and Amsterdam we virtually visit each city’s spice emporium, from the Rialto to Lisbon’s docks, to the warehouses of the Dutch East India Company. Each entrepot wrested a virtual spice monopoly from the other to supply both cooks and apothecaries with the Asian aromatics. The fashionable spices changed as did the manner of procuring them. Venice was little more than a middleman, purchasing pepper and other spices from middle-eastern merchants. Lisbon found a direct path to the South Asian sources building a necklace of trading posts around the world. The Dutch seized Indonesia’s spice islands with ruthless brutality ensuring a steady—and lucrative—supply of nutmeg and cloves to customers back home. Each section examines both demand (cuisine and medicine) as well as the supply (India, Ceylon, and the Spice Islands) and how all this led to a new globalized world.

Led by an expert on food and history, Michael Krondl, this course will explore how culinary fashion transformed the world. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of the interrelationship of food, history, and place.

 

Lecture 1: Pepper on the Rialto–The Spice that Built Venice

When Medieval Europeans adopted Arab culinary tastes and medicine, they also embraced the exotic Asian spices that were essential to Middle Eastern culture. Our first lecture will focus on Venice, a city that eventually monopolized the trade in this precious commodity, building a pocket-sized empire to assure its profits.

Lecture 2: Sugar and Spice–The Rise and Fall of Lisbon

In search of “Christians and Spices,” in the words of Vasco da Gama, Portuguese sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope, colonized Brazil and Africa, all in search of a direct route to the eastern spiceries. In the sixteenth century, they were not only Europe’s primary source of pepper but also of cinnamon, the “it” spice of every late Renaissance banquet.

Lecture 3: Gingerbread and Genocide–Amsterdam and the Dutch East India Company

With Amsterdam as the corporate headquarters, the Dutch East India company brutally usurped Portugal’s role as the west’s spice trader and the world’s most powerful global corporation. All this based on a gradually waning fashion for nutmeg and cloves.

Author Michael Krondl writes about food and history. He has penned several books, including The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spices and Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert among others. He has edited and contributed to several Oxford University Press volumes on food and culture, including The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets. He teaches at the New School and the City University of New York and has lectured at multiple venues including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, and San Francisco's Exploratorium.

How does it work?

This is a three-part series held weekly and hosted on Zoom. Please check the schedule for the specific dates and times for each lecture.

Is there a reading list in advance?

Though the course is open to participants with no background in this topic there are suggested readings for further investigation. You will receive this soon after course registration.

How long are the lectures?

Each lecture is 90 minutes long with time for Q&A.

How much is the course?

The course is $105 for three lectures.

Is a recording available?

Yes. If you need to miss a lecture please let us know and we can arrange for a recording for that session on an individual basis.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 22 reviews
55%
(12)
23%
(5)
9%
(2)
14%
(3)
0%
(0)
C
C.F. (Santa Monica, US)
A very interesting way to learn about these cities as well as the spice trade!

This was a particularly interesting tour because of the way it was presented. It covered the spice trade, but split it among three cities in three time periods. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the beginning of the private trading companies when the previous large scale trading had been done by municipalities. Given Dr. Krondl’s passion for food history, these three weeks covered an enormous amount of very interesting and engaging ground.

H
H.B. (Lexington, US)
Entertaining as well as informative.

I learned so much. Mr Krondl’s lecture was entertaining as well as educational. Besides having published a book about the topic, he has also spent lots of time in each city researching the topic. So, he is able to include information about the topic based on his personal experiences in each city. He really taught us how the spice trade was the beginning of globalization. I can’t think of a history class that would be any more important or interesting. At least to me!!

J
J.G. (San Francisco, US)
The spice trade with Michae Krondl

I absolutely loved this three part course. Michael imparted so much interesting and we’ll researched content. I’m sorry that the course completed today

B
B.K. (San Antonio, US)

Guest did not leave comment

H
Harriet Bradley (Lexington, US)

Guest did not leave comment

Customer Reviews

Based on 22 reviews
55%
(12)
23%
(5)
9%
(2)
14%
(3)
0%
(0)
C
C.F. (Santa Monica, US)
A very interesting way to learn about these cities as well as the spice trade!

This was a particularly interesting tour because of the way it was presented. It covered the spice trade, but split it among three cities in three time periods. I particularly enjoyed hearing about the beginning of the private trading companies when the previous large scale trading had been done by municipalities. Given Dr. Krondl’s passion for food history, these three weeks covered an enormous amount of very interesting and engaging ground.

H
H.B. (Lexington, US)
Entertaining as well as informative.

I learned so much. Mr Krondl’s lecture was entertaining as well as educational. Besides having published a book about the topic, he has also spent lots of time in each city researching the topic. So, he is able to include information about the topic based on his personal experiences in each city. He really taught us how the spice trade was the beginning of globalization. I can’t think of a history class that would be any more important or interesting. At least to me!!

J
J.G. (San Francisco, US)
The spice trade with Michae Krondl

I absolutely loved this three part course. Michael imparted so much interesting and we’ll researched content. I’m sorry that the course completed today

B
B.K. (San Antonio, US)

Guest did not leave comment

H
Harriet Bradley (Lexington, US)

Guest did not leave comment