164 / 374
1
64
DRINKS.
eau
de
vie
In
which
had
been
macerated
certain
herbs
and
aromatic
spices
to
give
It
taste
and
colour
;
after-
wards
minute
portions
of
metalHc
gold
were
added.
The
ingredients
mentioned
by
Arnold
de
Villeneuve
are
rosemary
flowers,
from
which,
he
says,
the
water
obtains
its
golden
colour,
cinnamon,
grains
of
paradise,
cloves,
cubebs,
liquorice,
and
the
like.
In
the
mind
of the
middle
ages,
gold
was
held
to
be
a
remedy
for
every
ill.
Many
people
applied
themselves
to
the
task
of
dissolving
this
metal
and
rendering
it
potable.
It
was
put
into
drinks,
baths,
•victuals,
pills,
and
the
pharmacopeia
of
the
time
abounds
in
elixirs
of
gold,
tinctures
of
gold,
drops
of
gold,
and
so
on.
To
please
the
public
eye,
those
pieces
of
the
precious
metal
were
cast
into
the
com-
position
which
we
now
know
as
Eau
de
vie
de
Dant^
zig.
Catherine
de
Medicis
brought
into
France
all
the
voluptuous
discoveries
and
superfluities
of
Italy,
and
helped
to
augment
considerably
the
number
of
new
liqueurs
and
to
popularize
their
usage.
Henry
II.
was
especially
fond
of
the
anisette
of
Marie
Brizard
of
Bordeaux.
Sully,
in
1604,
examining
the
objects
of
luxury
In
France,
found
Populo
and
Rossolio
to
have
the
chief
share
in
the
public
estimation
and
expendi-
ture.
Of
them
Populo
is
mentioned
in
the
Letters
of
Gui-Patin.-^
It
was
composed
of
spirits
of
wine,
water,
sugar,
musk,
amber,
essence
of
anise,
and
es-
sence
of
cinnamon.
B-Ossolis,
our
Rossolio,
or
Rossoli,
said
to
be
derived,
1
Gui-Patin
Let
Ires
^
ii.
425.