This article examines the role of testing and innovation in sixteenthcentury Italian pharmacy. I argue that apothecaries were less concerned with testing drugs for efficacy or creating novel products than with reactivating an older Mediterranean pharmacological tradition and studying the materials on which it relied. Their practice was not driven by radical experimentation but by a "culture of tweaking"—of minute operational changes to existing recipes and accommodation of their textual variants—which was rooted in the guild economy fostering incremental over radical innovation and in a humanist reevaluation of past autorities. Workshop practice was also increasingly driven by a new ideal of staying true to nature fostered by the period's botanical renaissance. This led to an emphasis on ingredients over processes in the shop, and found clearest expression in the elaboration of a taxonomic "language of truth" that helped apothecaries discern between authentic and inauthentic materia medica and harness their sincerity in lieu of testing effectiveness.
...More
Article
Enrico Cevolani;
Giulia Buscaroli;
(2018)
Dispute sulla teriaca tra gli speziali e Ulisse Aldrovandi nella Bologna del XVI secolo
(/isis/citation/CBB053286895/)
Article
Marina Macchio;
(2020)
La Spezieria del monastero fiorentino della Santissima Vergine Annunziata detto delle Murate
(/isis/citation/CBB027125579/)
Thesis
Sean David Parrish;
(2015)
Marketing Nature: Apothecaries, Medicinal Retailing, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Venice, 1565-1730
(/isis/citation/CBB816033989/)
Article
Francesco Baldanzi;
(2018)
Regolamentazione tra professionisti medici e speziali nella Firenze di fine Cinquecento e inizio Seicento
(/isis/citation/CBB297502062/)
Article
Laura Vannucci;
(2017)
Antichi manoscritti inediti sulle “visite alle spezierie” della città di Firenze e dintorni
(/isis/citation/CBB665968107/)
Chapter
Valentina Pugliano;
(2018)
Natural History in the Apothecary’s Shop
(/isis/citation/CBB753266245/)
Article
Marina Macchio;
(2017)
Il memoriale e le lettere del Cavaliere Niccolò Venerosi Pesciolini
(/isis/citation/CBB503416355/)
Article
Carmen Caccioppoli;
Gennaro Rispoli;
(2018)
Nell'antica spezieria degli Incurabili: dall'alchimia alla chimica nel segno dei secreta
(/isis/citation/CBB650805690/)
Article
Paschal, Ashley;
McNabney, Justin;
Hanson, Bryan;
(2005)
The Prescribing Habits and Materia Medica of Dr. William D. Hutchings
(/isis/citation/CBB000600487/)
Article
Sandra Plastina;
(2014)
"Considerar la mutatione dei tempi e delli stati e degli uomini": le "Lettere di philosophia naturale" di Camilla Erculiani
(/isis/citation/CBB042000682/)
Article
Smith, S. Halikowski;
(2009)
The Physician's Hand: Trends in the Evolution of the Apothecary and His Art across Europe (1500--1700)
(/isis/citation/CBB000933731/)
Article
Rodríguez-Guerrero, José;
(2008-2009)
La Primera Gran Red Comercial de un Medicamento chymico: Vittorio Algarotti y su Quintaesencia del Oro Medicinal
(/isis/citation/CBB001021307/)
Article
Federica Rotelli;
(2018)
Exotic Plants in Italian Pharmacopoeia (16th -17th Centuries)
(/isis/citation/CBB930409086/)
Article
Francesco Carnevale;
(2016)
Le malattie degli speziali nella lezione ramazziniana del "De Morbis Artificum Diatriba" (1700-1713)
(/isis/citation/CBB100603096/)
Article
Ernesto Riva;
Carla Camana;
(2018)
Radiografia della teriaca
(/isis/citation/CBB982733896/)
Article
Strocchia, Sharon T.;
(2011)
The Nun Apothecaries of Renaissance Florence: Marketing Medicines in the Convent
(/isis/citation/CBB001230843/)
Article
Ernesto Riva;
Carla Camana;
(2016)
"L'arte dello speziale" di Francesco Sirena
(/isis/citation/CBB373887061/)
Article
Paulina Oszajca;
(2018)
Trocisci viperini nelle preparazioni teriacali
(/isis/citation/CBB964007541/)
Article
Veronica Ambrosino;
(2019)
La spezieria dell’Ospedale del Santa Maria della Scala di Siena: le spezie, la cura
(/isis/citation/CBB575176754/)
Article
Giorgio du Ban;
(2022)
Archeospezierie in Etruria
(/isis/citation/CBB459976303/)
Be the first to comment!