Facchini — Labourers — Grevembroch 3-120

Theriac was considered a kind of wonder medicine, and an antidote for most poisons. It required over sixty ingredients, and it was one of the prime products of the many pharmacies in Venice in the 1600s and 1700s.

Due to issues with fraud — and the importance of the industry to the Venetian economy — the Magistrato alla Sanità obliged the spezier and the pharmacists to display the ingredients for theriac in the street in front of the shop for several days each year.

Day labourers were hired to grind the ingredients into a fine powder, working in the open in front of the pharmacy.

This watercolour depicts such a worker, pounding the ingredients of theriac in a giant mortar.

#Commoners #histodons #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/translation/facchini-labourers-grevembroch-3-120/

Fabricatore di Teriaca — Maker of Theriac — Grevembroch 3-127

Theriac was an important product for many apothecaries in Venice, and indeed an important part of the economy of the city.

The production and trade in theriac was therefore regulated by the Magistrato alla Sanità and by the Consiglio di Dieci.

This painting shows a worker, sitting astride a large chest, with a large sieve for sifting the partially ground up ingredients of theriac. For a comparison, see The preparation of Theriac — two prints (1600s).

#histodons #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/translation/fabricatore-di-teriaca-maker-of-theriac-grevembroch-3-127/

Venice treacle

When the English gentleman John Evelyn left Venice in 1646, after almost a year in Venice and Padua, he had more stuff than when he had arrived. From his diary for late March 1646:

Having packed up my purchases of books, pictures, casts, treacle, &c., (the making and extraordinary ceremony whereof I had been curious to observe, for it is extremely pompous and worth seeing) I departed from Venice …

Venice was in practice the printing house of Europe, so obviously Evelyn had acquired books for his library back home. In Venice, Evelyn found a wider and more international selection of books than was ever available in London at the time.

Likewise, Venice was a centre for the arts, so paintings and casts also made it into Evelyn's luggage.

The treacle, however, was something quite different.

#histodons #Plague #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/article/daily-life-and-customs/venice-treacle/

A Theriac recipe (1734)

Teriaca (also triaca; English: theriac or treacle) was a kind of wonder medicine and general antidote, of which Venice was the main producer in Europe.

The recipe reproduced below is from the Lessico farmaceutico-chimico contenente li rimedj piu usati d'oggidi, 2nd revised edition of 1734, by Giovanni Battista Capello, spezier in Venice. The first edition was published in 1728, with permission of the superiori of 1727.

Theriac was a Venetian trade secret until 1669, when the French pharmacist Moyse Charas (1619–1698) published the recipe. Before that date, Capello would never have got permission from the superiors to publish the recipe.

#histodons #Medicine #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/translation/a-theriac-recipe-1734/

The preparation of Theriac — two prints (1600s)

These two prints depict elements of the public preparation of theriac at the Testa d'Oro pharmacy in Venice, at the Rialto bridge, which is seen in the background.

Teriaca (also triaca; English: theriac or treacle) was a kind of wonder medicine and general antidote, of which Venice was the main producer in Europe. The authorised pharmacies were obliged by the authorities to do much of the work in public, to prove that they didn't cheat on the ingredients or on the procedure.

While unsigned and undated, the prints are likely from the 1600s. The Testa d'Oro pharmacy made theriac from 1603, and made quite a show of it.

#Engravings #histodons #Medicine #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/translation/the-preparation-of-theriac-two-prints-1600s/

Teriaca — Theriac — Lessico Veneto

Teriaca (also triaca; English: theriac or treacle) was a kind of wonder medicine and general antidote, of which Venice was the main producer in Europe.

The origins of Theriac goes back to Roman times, with Andromachus, the physician of Nero, and before him, to Mithridates of Pontus, in Asia Minor.

The recipe was very complex, consisting of around sixty ingredients.

THERIAC. This famous compound preparation, from the Greek Andromachus, which, in the empiricism of past centuries, was revered as having a singular virtue, was predominantly prepared by the Venetians, who had learned the method from the Greeks and the Arabs.

#histodons #Theriac #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://historywalksvenice.com/translation/teriaca-theriac-lessico-veneto/

Word Search Puzzle 984

Word List : #loaders #enent #rhenea #lyonetia #bindable #waterers #sham #befilth #harpidae #hyalogen #bananas #mycteria #theriac #allanite #ohelo #redoute #caro #insists

http://karafinance.com/2024/02/28/word-search-puzzle-984/