The Potato-Porting Polymath

<p>Renaissance Man Thomas Harriot was noted for many things - devising the theory of refraction, creating mathematical symbols including ‘greater than’ and ‘lesser than’, and being the first person to draw the Moon through a telescope. But the contribution for which he’s most remembered is bringing back the potato to Britain - an event commonly credited to 3rd December, 1586.</p><br><p>On first spotting the vegetable on Roanoke Island, he wrote: <em>‘They are a kind of roots of round form, some of the</em><strong><em> </em></strong><em>bigness of walnuts, some far greater, which are found in moist & marish grounds growing many together one by another in ropes, or as though they were fastened with a string. Being boiled or sodden they are very good meate.’</em></p><br><p>In this episode, Arion, Olly and Rebecca ask what a ‘versifier’ is; come up with a new name for Accountancy; and discover the bizarre means by which Antoine-Augustin Parmentier popularised spuds in France…</p><br><p><strong>Further Reading:</strong></p><p>• ‘The history of the potato: The humble vegetable that changed the world’ (Sky HISTORY): <a href="https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-history-of-the-potato-the-humble-vegetable-that-changed-the-world" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-history-of-the-potato-the-humble-vegetable-that-changed-the-world</a></p><p>• ‘Thomas Harriot (1560 - 1621) - Biography’ (MacTutor History of Mathematics, St Andrews University): <a href="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Harriot/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Harriot/</a></p><p>• ‘History through the eyes of the potato’ (Leo Bear-McGuinness, TEDx 2015): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xROmDsULcLE" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xROmDsULcLE</a></p><br><p><strong>For bonus material and to support the show, visit</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/Patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://patreon.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Patreon.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><p><strong>We'll be back on Monday! Follow us wherever you get your podcasts:</strong><a href="https://create.acast.com/episodes/ca1f94a1-0921-446a-ae00-4d4bfd2ba3ef/podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong> </strong></a><a href="http://podfollow.com/Retrospectors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>podfollow.com/Retrospectors</strong></a></p><br><p><em>The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.</em></p><p><em>Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.</em></p><p><em>Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2021.</em> </p><br><p><em>#1500s #Food #Person #UK</em></p><br /><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>

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