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The State Drug
Theriac, Pharmacy, and Politics in Early Modern Italy
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Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
In Renaissance Italy, the Galenic “wonder drug” theriac became a vehicle for political, pharmaceutical, and commercial power. The State Drug shows how regimes and medical authorities secured support by promoting and regulating theriac. In turn, it sheds new light on the relationship between medicine and authority in early modern Europe.
Reviews
The State Drug takes the reader on a journey into the fascinating world of the most famous drug in Renaissance Europe: the panacea and poison antidote known as theriac. With meticulous research and elegant storytelling, Di Gennaro Splendore showcases theriac as a multifaceted medicament that prompted scientific inquiries, inspired public festivals, provoked professional rivalries, and became a key part of Italian public health. Full of entertaining anecdotes and thoughtful analysis, this book presents an important new view of early modern pharmacy.
-- Alisha Rankin, author of The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science
-- Alisha Rankin, author of The Poison Trials: Wonder Drugs, Experiment, and the Battle for Authority in Renaissance Science
In this deeply researched study, Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore shows how theriac – which enjoyed an almost mythic reputation as a wondrous remedy – buttressed the sociopolitical hierarchies and public health efforts of Italian Renaissance cities. Interweaving commercial, political, and medical histories, The State Drug will surely become the definitive work on theriac in the early modern period.
-- Sharon Strocchia, author of Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy
-- Sharon Strocchia, author of Forgotten Healers: Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy
The wonder drug theriac, manufactured in cities like Venice from the late Renaissance, achieved a global reach and survived well into the nineteenth century. In this illuminating study, with an eye to intriguing details as well as the broader socioeconomic and political context, Di Gennaro Splendore traces theriac’s ancient and medieval past, its revival as part of the Renaissance quest for effective medicines, its state sponsorship and municipal rituals, its worldwide trade and consumption, and its eventual decline.
-- David Gentilcore, author of Food and Health in Early Modern Europe: Diet, Medicine and Society, 1450–1800
-- David Gentilcore, author of Food and Health in Early Modern Europe: Diet, Medicine and Society, 1450–1800
Topics
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I EARL Y HISTORY AND SENSORY EXPERIENCE OF THERIAC
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II PHARMACY AND STATECRAFT
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III PARADOXES OF SUCCESS
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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 14, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780674300552
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
288
