Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 403

BARTOLOMEO MARANTA (d. 1571) Della theriaca et del mithridato, libri due. Appresso Marcantonio Olmo 1572 [15] 280 [28] pp. 20.6 cm.

When theriac and mithridatium were first developed, they were simple remedies with few ingredients and were used as antidotes for poisons and to combat the effects of bites of venomous animals. However, as time progressed, they became complex formulations often containing sixty or more ingredients and were used as panaceas for a wide variety of human ills. These remedies were frequently prepared in public places in order to discourage the marketing of fraudulent remedies and it was not unusual for the completed preparation to be licensed by the city where it was prepared. Theriac and mithridatium were widely used for nearly two thousand years before they were finally shown to be completely without therapeutic value. Nicander of Colophon (fl. 136 B.C.) first compounded theriac or treacle as an antidote to counteract the effects of the bites of wild and poisonous animals. A similar preparation which became known as mithridatium was developed by Mithridates (132 B.C.-63 B.C.), King of Pontus, who lived in constant fear of being poisoned by his enemies. He went to great lengths to make himself immune from all poisons by taking small doses of poisonous substances each day along with an antidote he had compounded. Well-known versions of his remedy were prepared by Democrates and Andromachus, physicians of the Emperor Nero. The author of the present work was a physician, pharmacist, and botanist of Naples. He was a student of the eminent botanist, Luca Ghini (fl. 1490), with whom he studied botany and mineralogy at Pisa. He worked with Ferrante Imperato (ca. 1550-ca. 1631) in the botanical garden which Imperato founded at Naples. Maranta started a botanical garden for the city of Rome in 1568. In addition to this work, Maranta wrote several other botanical treatises which were well received at the time. Maranta has divided the work into two parts with the first part being devoted to theriac and the second to mithridatium. The history, virtues, and detailed instructions for preparing each remedy are given in great detail for there was considerable variation in the ingredients of the two compounds from place to place throughout the western world of Maranta's day.

Cited references: Durling 2948; Wellcome 4037

Gift of John Martin, M.D.