Miracle cure or snake oil?

When the English gentleman John Evelyn left Venice in 1646, after almost a year in Venice and Padua, he had more stuff than when he had arrived.

From his diary for late March 1646:

Having packed up my purchases of books, pictures, casts, treacle, &c., (the making and extraordinary ceremony whereof I had been curious to observe, for it is extremely pompous and worth seeing) I departed from Venice …

Unsurprisingly, Evelyn had been shopping books and works of art, but also treacle made with extremely pompous ceremony.

The treacle was Venice treacle, one of the main export articles of the Republic of Venice.

#1600s #Medicine #Venezia #Venice

Read more here: https://venetianstories.com/venetian-story/miracle-cure-or-snake-oil/