Basque Country
Region around the western Pyrenees and the Bay of Biscay, in Spain and France. In Cod the Basques are the first great cod traders.
At a glance
| Source | Author | Role | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cod | Mark Kurlansky | backdrop | The seafaring Basques salt whale and then cod, and keep the source of their cod a secret. |
Sub-places
Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World — Mark Kurlansky (1997)
Source: Cod · Original · Readwise highlight
They have lived in what is now the northwest corner of Spain and a nick of the French southwest for longer than history records
- Role: backdrop
- In the book: Kurlansky describes the Basque homeland between the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian mountains and the Bay of Biscay, and its language, Euskera. The Basques salted whale meat and then cod, sailed to distant waters and kept quiet about where their cod came from; later in the book their salt cod cuisine is called the most highly developed in the world.
- Why it matters: The Basques open the book’s history of the cod trade.