Introduction “Wine is light, held together by water.”

– Galileo Galilei According to an ancient Persian fable, wine was the accidental discovery of a princess seeking to end her life with what she thought was poison. Instead, she experienced the elixir’s intoxicating effects as it released her from the anxieties of royal court life. Evolving over the centuries, grape growing and wine-making has continued to grip the human imagination, inspiring passion and ingenuity. Archeological evidence suggests that grape cultivation and wine making began in Mesopotamia and areas surrounding the Caspian Sea sometime between 6000 and 4000 BCE. The drink was savored by royalty and priests, while commoners drank beer, mead, and ale. The ancient Egyptians, the first culture known to document the process of wine making, preserved descriptions of harvesting grapes and drinking wine on clay tablets, which have been discovered within the burial chambers of the social elite. Wine making made its way to Greece, where it permeated all aspects of society: literature, mythology, medicine, leisure, and religion. The Romans took vine clippings from Greece back to Italy, and centers of viticulture soon developed in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and the rest of Europe. Trade routes and early explorers carried vines and grape growing treatises to Mexico, Argentina, and North Africa, and the culture of wine continues to spread around the globe today, with vines growing on every continent except Antarctica. Cuneiform tablet, 2031 BCE.

[zoom] | Additional images: This small, clay tablet dates from the sixth year of Shu-Sin (2031 BCE), fourth king of the Third Dynasty of Ur (2112-2004 BCE). The tablet records perhaps the earliest documented mention of wine. It is a receipt for jugs of wine from the supervisor of the estate as received by the estate cook, Adalal. Cuneiform, from the Latin cuneus, meaning “wedge,” is the term applied to a mode of writing which used a wedge-shaped stylus to make impressions on a clay surface, or on stone, metal, or wax. Most clay tablets were sun-baked. This tablet was published as no. 1263 by Cornell professor David I. Owen and Rudolf H. Mayr in The Garšana Archives (Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology, Volume 3), Bethesda: CDL Press, 2007. From the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Cornell University. Description provided by Professor David I. Owen. Hartmann Schedel. Liber Cronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 12 July 1493.

[zoom] According to the Old Testament, Noah, known as the inventor of wine and first tiller of the soil, planted a vineyard, drank of his own wine, and thus became drunk. Pietro de Crescenzi. De Omnibus Agriculturæ Partibus.... Basileæ: per Henrichvm Petri, [1548].

[zoom] | Additional images: Dedicated to King Charles II of Naples, this work was widely acknowledged in its day to be one of the most comprehensive and useful works on medieval agriculture. Book IV is on vines, wine-making, the means of preserving both fresh and dried grapes. Jean-Antoine-Claude Chaptal. Traité Théorique et Pratique sur la Culture de la Vigne.... A Paris: Chez Delalain, fils … de l'Imprimerie de Marchant, An IX. --1801.

[zoom] | Additional images: A rare first edition, this classic work covers all phases of wine production. Chaptal was the first to promote the process of adding sugar to unfermented grape must, which strengthened and preserved wine. Widespread adoption of this practice would help fuel a wine making revolution lasting to the present day. Egyptian stele fragment. Painted and incised limestone stele. Middle Kingdom: Egypt, Abydos (shaft of tomb X58), c. 2040-1633 BCE.

[zoom] Egyptian tombs often contained texts such as this one detailing the drinking of wine by rulers and nobles. The hieroglyphics across the top of the fragment translate: “An offering which the king gives to Osiris, the great god, lord of Abydos, that he may give offerings of bread, [wine], flesh, and fowl …” The figure in the middle of the fragment is shown drinking wine from a jug. On loan from Cornell University Anthropology Collections. Greek cups. Ceramic. Archaic to Classical period, ca. mid 6th century BCE.

[zoom] Although wine was originally a drink enjoyed only by the upper classes, Greek physicians later began prescribing it for medicinal purposes to all members of society. On loan from Cornell University Anthropology Collections. Encyclopédie, ou, Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers / par une Société de gens de lettres. Mis en ordre et publié par M. Diderot ... Paris: Briasson [etc.], 1751-1772.

[zoom] | Additional images: Assembled under the direction of Denis Diderot, this landmark 18th century compendium of Enlightenment thought provides an overview of all fields of human knowledge on subjects ranging from philosophy to the arts, natural science, mathematics, the trades, and agriculture—including an entry on viticulture. The engraving shown here details the tools and implements used for grape vine pruning and training, many of which remain in use today. Diderot’s Encyclopédie made the first mention of using sugar to sweeten wines, advocating this practice over the earlier practice of adding lead. Peter Shaw. The Juice of the Grape: or, Wine Preferable to Water. A Treatise Wherein Wine is Shewn to be the Grand Preserver of Health, and Restorer in Most Diseases. London: Printed for W. Lewis … 1724.

[zoom] Written by a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, this treatise asserts that wine can return patients to their natural state of good health with minimal help from their physician. This cheerful remedy was prescribed to those who displayed “symptoms of fancy” (hypochondria) and melancholy. Cordial glasses, ca. 1830-1840.

[zoom] On loan from the Cornell University Anthropology Collection. Flint glass wine decanter, ca. 1810.

[zoom] Silverplate wine bottle coaster, ca. 1900.

[zoom] Coin silver goblet, inscribed: “Esther,” ca. 1840.

[zoom] Basket-style wine press, [n.d.].

[zoom] This ratchet basket press is the most common and least expensive type of press. The spaces between the slats allow the juice to flow through the gaps when pressure is applied by the lid, which is slowly ratcheted down on top of the grapes. On loan from the Frank A. Lee Library, Agricultural Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y. Thai ceramic wine bottle, [n.d.].

[zoom] Egyptian cup and stand. Abydos, Egypt, Second Intermediate period.

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