Cantarella

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

## References

1. ↑ Bradford, S. (2005). Lucrezia Borgia: Life, Love and Death in Renaissance Italy. Penguin Books Limited. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-14-190949-3. https://books.google.com/books?id=1fM9rq0sDPgC&pg=PT190.
2. ↑ Strathern, P. (2009). 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. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-553-90689-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=1UG1loD_HOgC&pg=RA1-CANTARELLA.
3. ↑ Noel, G. (2016). The Renaissance Popes: Culture, Power, and the Making of the Borgia Myth. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-4721-2507-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=jCDyCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT192.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Karamanou, Marianna; Androutsos, George; Hayes, A. Wallace; Tsatsakis, Aristides (2018). "Toxicology in the Borgias period: The mystery of Cantarella poison". Toxicology Research and Application 2. doi:10.1177/2397847318771126.
5. ↑ "Cantharellus". Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Cantharellus.

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