De Pipere Cubeba Dissertatio

Cubeb, native to Java and Sumatra, is cultivated for its berries and oil and has been used for centuries in herbal medicine and as a flavoring⁠—similar to allspice or pepper⁠—in gin, chewing gum, and various other products. Mentioned in ancient Greek and Roman texts, as well as in the Arabian One Thousand and One Nights and The Travels of Marco Polo, the species is the focus of this university dissertation written by Professor Carl Peter Thunberg. In 18th and 19th century Europe, professors wrote the dissertations; the student’s job was to explicate and defend it and pay for its publication. SIL holds dozens of these botanical and zoological papers by the great systematist Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) at the University of Uppsala (Sweden) and his student and successor Thunberg.