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
editThe 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]
References
edit- ^ Bradford, S. (2005). Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy. Penguin Books Limited. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-14-190949-3.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ "Cantharellus". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Archived from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
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