Cinnamomum

CINNAMOMUM. God commands Moses to take Cinnamon, and several other sweet Spices, and make a perfumed Oil with them, to anoint the Tabernacle, and all the vessels belonging to it. The Cinnamomum is a shrub, the bark whereof has an admirable scent; several of the Moderns confound it with the Cinnamon Tree and Cassia Aromatica. Others distinguish these Species. It is certain that the true Cinnamomum is very rare. Matthiolus assures us, that whatever inquiries he had made after it, he could never find any of it; and in Galen’s time it was so scarce, that it was hardly to be found any where but in the Emperor’s Cabinet. Pliny¹ says, that it was formerly valued at a thousand Denarii; but that the price of it was raised to double what it had been by the great waste made by the Barbarians, who had burnt all these Trees. Matthiolus is of opinion, that the Cinnamomum is quite lost in Arabia, as the Balsam Tree in Judæa. Some Rabbins by the Hebrew Cinnamon suppose Aloes to be understood.

קנמוןKinnamon. 70. Κινναμώμον.No one at present makes the least question, but the Cinnamomum spoken of so confusedly by the Antients, is Cinnamon; now Cinnamon is a long thin Bark, rolled up together, of a dark red colour, of a poignant taste, aromatick, and very agreeable. The fine Cinnamon comes all from the Isle of Ceylon. Some other Barks are likewise called Cinnamon, such as Clove Cinnamon, white Cinnamon, and the Cassia Lignea. Clove Cinnamon is the bark of a Tree to be found in the Isle of Madagascar, and called Ravendsara. White Cinnamon is the bark of a Tree which grows in America, at Jamaica, and S. Domingo. The Cassia Lignea is the Bark of a Tree called by the People of Malabar Katoukarva. Some believe it to be the second Bark of the wild Cinnamon Tree.

But there is no probability that Moses intended to speak of the Cinnamon of Ceylon, nor those of America, which was an unknown Country, and in all likelihood not peopled in his time, and Trade was not as yet opened with the Isle of Ceylon, or Tapobrana. But there might be Cinnamon in Arabia, or Ethiopia; or however, the Hebrew word Cinnamon made use of by Moses, signifies something else besides Cinnamon. The Hebrew reading is Kinnamon here and Exod. xxx. 23.in Cant. iv. 14. Matthiolus tells us, that the Cinnamomum has failed in Arabia, in like manner ner as the Balsam Tree in Judæa. This should seem to be rather a Gum or Oil, than a Bark or odoriferous Wood.

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