Looking afresh at theriac, the multi-ingredient remedy of premodern medicine, The State Drug addresses head-on the critical question of its longevity. Finding an answer in the diverse political functions that theriac acquired in early modern Italian states, Barbara Di Gennaro Splendore’s book contributes to a contemporary trend in historical studies of pharmacy that productively combines economic, social and intellectual approaches.
Theriac, a dense and fragrant substance that was believed to cure diverse conditions, has fascinated generations of historians. More recently they have discussed the wide-ranging processes of which it was part, from the ceremonies accompanying its manufacture to debates over ingredients that created scholarly networks and affected apothecaries’ status. Yet the agency of theriac has never been discussed as comprehensively as in the seven chapters of this highly readable book, which follows the history of this drug from its first noted use all the way to its demise in the late eighteenth century.
Di Gennaro Splendore starts on familiar ground, with sixteenth-century humanist physicians and apothecaries obsessing over the ‘true theriac’, in the hope of finding the legitimate version of this most prestigious drug of ancient times. Eager to identify and procure the correct ingredients, they pitched ‘true’ theriac against what they saw as the questionable substance that was widely sold and consumed under the same name. Erudition and commerce drove the process, and we also encounter here the first instance of the defining competition between genuine and fake theriac.
Di Gennaro Splendore skilfully multiplies perspectives to reveal, in Chapter 2, the religious associations of theriac and debates about its sensory characteristics, critical in the assessment of batches. Trials pivoted on the evidence of the senses, but verdicts were hard to reach. Turning to a more specific political function of theriac, Chapter 3 enters princely courts. The origin of the substance in the Roman Empire provided sovereigns with a valuable model for associating themselves with theriac. Supporting its production – the nature of which as an antidote could easily be framed symbolically – served their self-fashioning as protectors of the common good and their people’s health. Chapter 4 develops the point, arguing that plague epidemic in the 1570s marked a new phase in the success of theriac as this and subsequent health crises galvanized rulers’ intervention. Theriac belonged to the same world in which Italian cities’ health boards were established, as evidenced by the request to the papal representative in Bologna that more be provided to the lazaretto, one of the numerous vivid vignettes in the book. This political frame is at work in Di Gennaro Splendore’s analysis of the exhibition and inspection of ingredients and the certification following these ceremonies. Sensitive to contingent political arrangements, she highlights the interests that they served in different locales.
Theriac as a commodity is examined in Chapter 5, where quantitative data reveal that the drug was more affordable than was previously thought. That rulers intervened to control prices provides further evidence for theriac as a ‘state drug’, though commercialization also fostered diversification to reach socially diverse buyers, from the expensive ‘celestial theriac’ that bestowed distinction on select users to a cheaper version with fewer ingredients and the triaca del Giesù sold by an itinerant healer. Contrasting Venice and Bologna, Chapter 6 examines closely how disputes between apothecaries and physicians played out in the two cities’ political orders. To defend their traditional recipe against attempts to change it, Venetian apothecaries found support in civic magistratures concerned about damage to the coffers of this maritime power. In conservative Bologna members of the College of Physicians drew on a paternalistic rhetoric to project themselves as defenders of ordinary people against the risks of fraudulent apothecaries.
The book concludes with the paradox that production of theriac expanded in the eighteenth century just as its medical merits were being challenged more widely. While it remained a sought-after remedy and so good for business, Chapter 7 also charts its transformation from the prestigious drug associated with emperors to the remedy allegedly popular with women and ignoramuses and suitable for animals – though it retained favour among conservative elites. The uses of theriac in colonial projects testify to its function as a state drug, and the focus is on how this played out according to broader colonial agendas.
A vast array of sources supports this rich discussion, from records of prices to apothecaries’ handbills and from verses celebrating theriac to petitions, pictures, letters and an expansive printed literature. By exploring the intersecting spheres to which theriac belonged, the book will appeal to a variety of historians. Tantalizing details will intrigue readers with an interest in the history of science: that fermentation – the critical and contested phase in the making of theriac – could break glass containers invites further investigations of how the material practices of pharmacy intersected with natural-philosophical reflection on matter. The perennial problem of fake theriac also involved the use of fraudulent seals – the devices meant to guarantee authenticity – a wonderful window onto practices and cultures of commerce.
The geographical scope of the book combines the focused analysis of better-documented episodes in Bologna and Venice with comparisons across the Italian states and beyond. The discussion of geopolitical differences raises the question of the nature of the ‘state’ in the expression ‘state drug’. In places ‘the state’ is used almost to imply an entity that existed above and beyond the concrete networks, multiple negotiations, self-serving interests, paternalistic approaches and personal political interactions that characterized Italian states and cities. As the book itself shows, rifts erupted within professional colleges following logics other than the interests of the state. That apothecaries’ workshops in religious institutions were exempted from routine inspections reveals the importance of ad hoc arrangements for control. The political order was unstable, perhaps just like the drug.
However, that readers may be left wanting a more direct engagement with the complex historiography of early modern states does not detract from the achievements of this book, which meticulously and convincingly locates the endurance of this drug in its broad political agency.
