The Tomato

In his 1544 herbal, Matthiolus documents the existence of tomatoes in Italy and also reports that Italians ate them. Vernon Quinn proposes that the Spanish explorers brought it back to Spain from Mexico and that a Moor brought it to Tangiers and, from there, an Italian brought it to Italy where it was called Moor's apple, pomo dei mori, and a name with a similar sound, poma amoris, but a different meaning: love apple. Similarly, the French referred to it as love apple, pomme d'amour (Heiser 1969).