:Cantarella

{{Short description|Poison allegedly used by the House of Borgia}}

{{Other uses}}

{{Italics title}}

Cantarella was a poison allegedly used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been arsenic,{{cite book | last=Bradford | first=S. | title=Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy | publisher=Penguin Books Limited | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-14-190949-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1fM9rq0sDPgC&pg=PT190 | page=190}} came in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste",{{cite book | last=Strathern | first=P. | title=The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped | publisher=Random House Publishing Group | year=2009 | isbn=978-0-553-90689-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1UG1loD_HOgC&pg=RA1-CANTARELLA | page=255}} and was sprinkled on food or in wine. If it did exist, it left no trace in the works of contemporary writers.{{cite book | last=Noel | first=G. | title=The Renaissance Popes: Culture, Power, and the Making of the Borgia Myth | publisher=Little, Brown Book Group | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-4721-2507-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCDyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT192 | page=192}}

Etymology

The exact origin of the term cantarella is unknown.{{cite journal |last1=Karamanou |first1=Marianna |last2=Androutsos |first2=George |last3=Hayes |first3=A. Wallace |last4=Tsatsakis |first4=Aristides |author-link4=Aristides M. Tsatsakis |title=Toxicology in the Borgias period: The mystery of Cantarella poison |journal=Toxicology Research and Application |year=2018 |volume=2 |doi=10.1177/2397847318771126|doi-access=free }} It may have been derived from kantharos ({{langx|grc|κάνθαρος}}), a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking, or the Neo-Latin word {{lang|la|cantharellus}} ('small cup'), in reference to the cups in which the poison would have been served.{{cite web |title=Cantharellus |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Cantharellus |website=Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=16 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701091526/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Cantharellus |archive-date=1 July 2022 |url-status=live}} The word may also be related to kantharis (Ancient Greek: {{lang|grc|κάνθαρις}}), referring to the Spanish fly and other blister beetles that secrete cantharidin, a substance that is poisonous in large doses.

References

{{Reflist}}

Category:Arsenic

Category:House of Borgia

Category:Poisons

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