Cantarella Explained

Cantarella was a poison allegedly used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been arsenic,^[1] came in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste",^[2] and was sprinkled on food or in wine. If it did exist, it left no trace in the works of contemporary writers.^[3]

Etymology

The exact origin of the term cantarella is unknown.^[4] It may have been derived from kantharos (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κάνθαρος), a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking, or the Neo-Latin word Latin: cantharellus ('small cup'), in reference to the cups in which the poison would have been served.^[5] The word may also be related to kantharis (Ancient Greek: Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κάνθαρις), referring to the Spanish fly and other blister beetles that secrete cantharidin, a substance that is poisonous in large doses.

Notes and References

1. Book: Bradford, S. . Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy . Penguin Books Limited . 2005 . 978-0-14-190949-3 . 190.
2. Book: Strathern, P. . The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior: The Intersecting Lives of Da Vinci, Machiavelli, and Borgia and the World They Shaped . Random House Publishing Group . 2009 . 978-0-553-90689-9 . 255.
3. Book: Noel, G. . The Renaissance Popes: Culture, Power, and the Making of the Borgia Myth . Little, Brown Book Group . 2016 . 978-1-4721-2507-1 . 192.
4. Karamanou . Marianna . Androutsos . George . Hayes . A. Wallace . Tsatsakis . Aristides . Aristides M. Tsatsakis . Toxicology in the Borgias period: The mystery of Cantarella poison . Toxicology Research and Application . 2018 . 2 . 10.1177/2397847318771126. free .
5. Web site: Cantharellus . Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary . . 16 March 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220701091526/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Cantharellus . 1 July 2022 . live.