Cantarella

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Cantarella was a poison allegedly used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been arsenic, [1] came in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste", [2] and was sprinkled on food or in wine. If it did exist, it left no trace in the works of contemporary writers. [3]

Etymology

The exact origin of the term cantarella is unknown. [4] It may have been derived from kantharos (Ancient Greek : κάνθαρος), a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking, or the Neo-Latin word cantharellus ('small cup'), in reference to the cups in which the poison would have been served. [4] [5] The word may also be related to kantharis (Ancient Greek: κάνθαρις), referring to the Spanish fly and other blister beetles that secrete cantharidin, a substance that is poisonous in large doses. [4]

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References

  1. Bradford, S. (2005). Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy. Penguin Books Limited. p. 190. ISBN   978-0-14-190949-3.
  2. Strathern, P. (2009). The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped. Random House Publishing Group. p. 255. ISBN   978-0-553-90689-9.
  3. Noel, G. (2016). The Renaissance Popes: Culture, Power, and the Making of the Borgia Myth. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 192. ISBN   978-1-4721-2507-1.
  4. 1 2 3 Karamanou, Marianna; Androutsos, George; Hayes, A. Wallace; Tsatsakis, Aristides (2018). "Toxicology in the Borgias period: The mystery of Cantarella poison". Toxicology Research and Application. 2. doi: 10.1177/2397847318771126 .
  5. "Cantharellus". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2024.