Introduction : the idea of spice

I. The spice race

1. The spice seekers

The taste that launched a thousand ships

Christians and spices

Debate and stryfe between the Spanyardes and Portugales

The scent of paradise

II. Palate

2. Ancient appetites

The aromanauts

Of spiced parrot and stuffed dormice

Spice for Trimalchio

Decline, fall, survival

3. Medieval Europe

The flavors of Cockayne

Salt, maggots, and rot?

The regicidal lamprey and the deadly beaver

Keeping up with the Percys

III. Body

4. The spice of life

The pharaoh's nose

Abbot Eberhard's complaint

Pox, pestilence, and pomanders

5. The spice of love

"When tendre youthe hath wedded stoupyng age"

Hot stuff

Spice girls

Afterword ; or, How to make a small penis splendid

IV. Spirit

6. Food of the gods

Holy smoke

God's nostrils

Odors of sanctity

Old age, new age

7. Some like it bland

Saint Bernard's family tiff

Filthy lucre

Epilogue : the end of the spice age.