Les fruits, le Thrésor de santé de la France classique (xvii^e -xviii^e siècles)

Horticultural treatises and medical prescriptions, correspondence and household diaries … these are some of the many sources providing evidence of dietary debate and practices favourable to the consumption of fruit during the last two centuries of the Ancien Régime. Progressively the precepts of earlier dietary thinking arising from Galen tend to disappear from these texts to be later denounced as prejudices in order to assert that a well-ripened fruit can be nothing other than healthy. It is true that during the period in question there was a net improvement in the quality of fruit for consumption, the “coriace” peach from Corbeil in the 16^th century being but the poor relation of the “délicate” peach from the espaliers of Montreuil in the 18^th century. Not only does fruit become a food highly recommended for the maintenance of good health but also to aid recovery from bad health. These foods whose medicinal properties are carefully detailed are said to cure dysentery and fevers, calm gout and other pains, fortify the stomach and the heart…, certain fruits are even elevated to the status of a panacea such as the blackcurrant in the 1740’s. In addition, these “thrésors de santé” appear all the more efficient since they preserve not only the body but also the soul, as cultivated fruit incorporates the virtues of the garden that holds back the untamed world, as much for the gentleman of the 17^th century as for the good citizen of the 18^th century.