cantarella
Sign in to saveCantarella was a poison allegedly used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been arsenic, came in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste", and was sprinkled on food or in wine. If it did exist, it left no trace in the works of contemporary writers.
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, cantarella is referenced by 6 other articles, and connects out to International Standard Book Number, arsenic and Ancient Greek.
Vinony files it under Arsenic, House of Borgia and Poisons.
Its subject is documented across 8 Wikipedia language editions.
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Encyclopedic overview
2 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- References
Cantarella was a poison allegedly used by the Borgias during the papacy of Pope Alexander VI. It may have been arsenic, came in the shape of "a white powder with a pleasant taste", and was sprinkled on food or in wine. If it did exist, it left no trace in the works of contemporary writers.
==Etymology== The exact origin of the term cantarella is unknown. It may have been derived from kantharos (), a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking, or the Neo-Latin word ('small cup'), in reference to the cups in which the poison would have been served. The word may also be related to kantharis (Ancient Greek: ), referring to the Spanish fly and other blister beetles that secrete cantharidin, a substance that is poisonous in large doses.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “cantarella” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.