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MARCHPANE, or MARZIPAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 691 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARCHPANE, or MARZIPAN , a sweetmeat made of sweet almonds and See also:sugar pounded and worked into a See also:paste, and moulded into various shapes, or used in the icing of cakes, &c. The best marchpane comes from See also:Germany, that from See also:Konigsberg being celebrated. The origin of the word has been much discussed. It is See also:common in various forms in most See also:European See also:languages, Romanic or See also:Teutonic; See also:Italian has marzapane, See also:French massepain, and See also:German marzipan, which has in See also:English to some extent superseded the true English See also:form "marchpane." Italian seems to have been the source from which the word passed into other languages. In Johann Burchard's Diarium curiae romanae (1483–1492) the Latin form appears as martiapanis (Du Cange, Glossarium s.v.), and Minshseu explains the word as Martins panis, See also:bread of See also:Mars, from the " towers, castles and such like " that appeared on elaborate See also:works of the confectioner's See also:art made of this sweatmeat. Another derivation is that from Gr. ,u4a, See also:barley cake, and See also:Lat. panis. A connexion has been sought with the name of a Venetian See also:coin, matapanus (Du Cange, s.v.), on which was a figure of See also:Christ enthroned, struck by Enrico See also:Dandolo, See also:doge of See also:Venice (1192–1205). From the coin the word was applied to a small See also:box, and hence apparently to the sweet-See also:meat contained in it.

End of Article: MARCHPANE, or MARZIPAN

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