John Zacharias Actuarius

CHILLI, seu Piper Mexicanum, planta est ferens siliquas illas, quæ ab Haitinis Agies, ab antiquis, vt quidam volunt, siliquastra, & ab Hispanis Piper Indicum vocatur, & Capsicum ab Actuario nuncupatur. quæ licet diù in nostrum orbem translata sit, ibiq; & in hortis, & in vasis fictilibus, ornamenti & vsus gratia seratur, & habeatur in delicijs, tamen quoniam apud Indos multo plura eorum genera reperiuntur, & orexi excitandæ, commendandisq; ferculis suppetias ferat, adeo vt nullam sit reperire mensam sine Chilli, atque ideo quotidiano experimento sint illius facultates notissimæ, adductus sum non modo differentias, quæ in noua Hispania proueniunt, de quibus modo agitur, verum specierum fere omnium, quæ adhuc ad manus nostras peruenerunt, exhibere imagines, formas describere, vniuersamq; facultatem, & naturam tradere posteritati.

Chilli, or Mexican pepper, is the plant that bears the pods that the people of Haiti call agies, which some say the ancients called siliquastrum, the Spaniards call Indian pepper, and Actuarius named capsicum. It was brought to our part of the world long ago, and there it is grown in gardens and in pots, for ornament and use, and is much prized. Yet the Indians have many more kinds of it. It so stirs the appetite and makes dishes tasty that no table is found without chilli, and its powers are well known from daily experience. So I have decided to show not only the kinds that grow in New Spain, which are my subject here, but pictures of almost all the kinds that have come into our hands so far, to describe their forms, and to pass on to later times all their powers and nature.