Pill Box
San Polo 2012

Alberto Toso Fei narrates...

“In Venice, even the pharmaceutical sector played an important role in defining the state’s budget. The Venetian pharmaceutical school quickly became a leader in Europe, particularly for the production of a drug, Theriaca or Triaca, which for a long time was one of the most profitable ventures for the Serenissima, due to the sophistication and care with which it was made. It contained over sixty ingredients, including viper meat and powdered deer testicle, and was considered a cure-all for various ailments, as well as an effective antidote against poisons.

A kind of ancient ‘aspirin’: Venetians learned the recipe from the Greeks and Arabs, but became so skilled at preparing it that even the people of the Middle East, the original holders of the secrets from Greek Andromachus, Nero’s personal physician who perfected it, would not trust any Theriaca other than the Venetian version. It is said that even the Chinese emperor, upon learning of this extraordinary medicine, requested and obtained a vial of it.

Apothecaries were initially united in a single Brotherhood, with their Mariegola, or the category’s statute; from the 14th century, they were divided into two main categories: the apothecaries of medicines and the apothecaries of bulk (who mainly sold spices rather than medicines). Each apothecary swore an oath to ‘not give, nor have given, nor teach how to make poisonous medicines».