Orvietan or orviétan was a medical concoction popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. It was used as a

panacea In Greek mythology and religion, Panacea (Greek ''Πανάκεια'', Panakeia), a goddess of universal remedy, was the daughter of Asclepius and Epione. Mythology Panacea and her four sisters each performed a facet of Apollo's art: * Panac ...

against poisonings with criminal intent, as well as against

mushroom poisoning Mushroom poisoning is poisoning resulting from the ingestion of mushrooms that contain toxicity, toxic substances. Signs and symptoms, Symptoms can vary from slight Gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal discomfort to death in about 10 days. Mus ...

snakebite A snakebite is an injury caused by the bite of a snake, especially a venomous snake. A common sign of a bite from a venomous snake is the presence of two puncture wounds from the animal's fangs. Sometimes venom injection from the bite may ...

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

stings, bites by

rabid Rabies is a viral disease that causes encephalitis in humans and other mammals. It was historically referred to as hydrophobia ("fear of water") because its victims panic when offered liquids to drink. Early symptoms can include fever and abn ...

animals, and the plague.

Origins

Gerolamo Ferranti started producing and selling ''orviétan'' in early 17th-century

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He was a fairground attraction, asking onlookers to give him unknown poisons to swallow and watch him cure himself with the remedy. Other

charlatan A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. One example of a charlatan appears in t ...

s in the business were Jean Vitrario, Desiderio Descombes, and Cristoforo Contugi. Though most physicians and pharmacists were skeptical, the reputed medical doctor

Johann Schröder Johann Schröder may refer to: * Johann Schröder (physician) (1600–1664), German physician and pharmacologist, recognised that arsenic was an element * Johann Heinrich Schröder (1784–1883), banker * Johann Schröder (mathematician) (1925–20 ...

published his own recipe in ''Pharmacopeia Medico-Chymica'' in 1655. The first pharmacist to include ''orviétan'' in his compendium was Moyse Charas in ''Pharmacopée Royale Galénique et Chymique'', 1676.

Ingredients

Orvietan was a concoction of partially toxic herbs, wine, and dissolved honey, but existed in powdered form too (sold in lead boxes). Patrizia Catellani and Renzo Console analyzed 35 different recipes for mixing ''orvietan'', published between 1655 and 1857. The number of ingredients varies from 9 to 57. The most frequent 26 ingredients are:

garden angelica ''Angelica archangelica'', commonly known as angelica, garden angelica, wild celery, and Norwegian angelica, is a biennial plant from the family Apiaceae, a subspecies of which is cultivated for its sweetly scented edible stems and roots. Like s ...

, healing wolfsbane, birthwort,

bistort Bistort is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Bistorta'', a genus recognized by some sources including the species: **''Bistorta bistortoides'', native to North America **''Bistorta officinalis ''Bistorta officinalis'' (synon ...

sweet flag ''Acorus calamus'' (also called sweet flag, sway or muskrat root, among many other common names) is a species of flowering plant with psychoactive chemicals. It is a tall wetland monocot of the family Acoraceae, in the genus ''Acorus.'' Alth ...

Carline thistle ''Carlina vulgaris'', the carline thistle, is a plant species of the genus '' Carlina''. It is a biennial that grows on limestone, chalky or other alkaline grasslands or dunes. The flowers are clusters of very small brown florets surrounded by b ...

dittany Dittany is a common name for several species of plants and may refer to: * '' Dictamnus albus'' (dittany) *''Ballota pseudodictamnus'' (false dittany) * ''Origanum dictamnus ''Origanum dictamnus'', the dittany of Crete, Cretan dittany or hop ma ...

gentian ''Gentiana'' () is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the gentian family ( Gentianaceae), the tribe Gentianeae, and the monophyletic subtribe Gentianinae. With over 300 species, it is considered a large genus. Gentians are notable for thei ...

, masterwort, black salsify,

tormentil ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 500 species of annual, biennial and perennial herbaceous flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. Potentillas may also be called cinquefoils in English, but they have also been called five finge ...

, valerian, blessed thistle,

dittany of Crete ''Origanum dictamnus'', the dittany of Crete, Cretan dittany or hop marjoram, is a tender perennial plant that grows 20–30 cm high. It is known in Greek as ''δίκταμο'' (''díktamo'', cf. "dittany") or in the Cretan dialect as ''έ ...

rue ''Ruta graveolens'', commonly known as rue, common rue or herb-of-grace, is a species of the genus '' Ruta'' grown as an ornamental plant and herb. It is native to the Mediterranean. It is grown throughout the world in gardens, especially for i ...

germander ''Teucrium'' is a cosmopolitan genus of flowering plants in the mint family Lamiaceae, commonly known as germanders. Plants in this genus are perennial herbs or shrubs, with branches that are more or less square in cross-section, leaves arranged ...

, laurel berries,

juniper berries A juniper berry is the female seed cone produced by the various species of junipers. It is not a true berry but a cone with unusually fleshy and merged scales called a galbulus, which gives it a berry-like appearance. The cones from a handful of ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, biscuits, b ...

cloves Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or fragrance in consumer products, ...

, viper meat, and the two concoctions

mithridate Mithridate, also known as mithridatium, mithridatum, or mithridaticum, is a semi-mythical remedy with as many as 65 ingredients, used as an antidote for poisoning, and said to have been created by Mithridates VI Eupator of Pontus in the 1st cen ...

and

theriac Theriac or theriaca is a medical concoction originally labelled by the Greeks in the 1st century AD and widely adopted in the ancient world as far away as Persia, China and India via the trading links of the Silk Route. It was an alexipharmic, ...

, as well as

white wine White wine is a wine that is Fermentation in winemaking, fermented without undergoing the process of Maceration (wine), maceration, which involves prolonged contact between the juice with the grape skins, seeds, and pulp. The wine color, colou ...

and

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...

Literary references

Literary works mentioning orvietan include: *

Tabarin Tabarin was the street name of Anthoine Girard (c. 1584 – August 16, 1633), the most famous Parisian street charlatan of his day, who amused his audiences in the Place Dauphine by farcical dialogue with his brother Philippe (as Mondor), wi ...

's ''Inventaire Universel des Œuvres de Tabarin'' (1622), *

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

's ''L'Amour médecin'' (1665), *

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

's ''Pot-pourri'' (1765), * Mme de Sevigne's correspondence, * Balzac's Le Père Goriot, *

Alexander Dumas Alexandre Dumas (born Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie, 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas , was a French novelist and playwright. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the mos ...

père's Marquise de Ganges, *

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

's ''L'homme qui rit'' *

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

's ''Kenilworth'' (1821), though Scott translates it as

Venice treacle Theriac or theriaca is a medical concoction originally labelled by the Greeks in the 1st century AD and widely adopted in the ancient world as far away as Persia, China and India via the trading links of the Silk Route. It was an alexipharmic, ...

* Walter Scott's ''The Talisman'' (1825), in Chapter XXI King Richard notes "I have but to take a drachm of orvietan by way of precaution, though it is needless" after sucking poison from a wound. *

Francis Parkman Francis Parkman Jr. (September 16, 1823 – November 8, 1893) was an American historian, best known as author of '' The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life'' and his monumental seven-volume '' France and England in North Ame ...

, in his ''La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West'' (1869), notes the explorer

Louis Hennepin Louis Hennepin, OFM (born Antoine Hennepin; ; 12 May 1626 – 5 December 1704) was a Belgian Catholic priest and missionary best known for his activities in North America. A member of the Recollects, a minor branch of the Franciscans, he travel ...

's devotion to the use of orvietan, "the famous panacea of his time", as an antidote to the toxic effects of various plants eaten while a captive of the

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

in 1680 * La Salle's Tonty also used orvietan as he noted in ''Relation of Henri de Tonty Concerning the Explorations of La Salle from 1678 to 1683'', Melvin B. Anderson, translator.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''L’Orvietano, una Panacea Popolare e Controversa''
Patent medicines

Origins

Ingredients

Literary references

See also

References

External links