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The Politics of Medicine at the Late Medici Court: the Recipe Collection of Anna Maria Luisa De’ Medici (1667 – 1743)

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The Politics of Medicine at the Late Medici Court: the Recipe Collection of Anna Maria Luisa De’ Medici (1667 – 1743) University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School November 2018 The Politics of Medicine at the Late Medici Court: The Recipe Collection of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667 – 1743) Ashley Lynn Buchanan University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the European History Commons, and the Medicine and Health Sciences Commons Scholar Commons Citation Buchanan, Ashley Lynn, "The Politics of Medicine at the Late Medici Court: The Recipe Collection of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667 – 1743)" (2018). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/8106 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Politics of Medicine at the Late Medici Court: The Recipe Collection of Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667 – 1743) by Ashley Lynn Buchanan A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Major Professor: Giovanna Benadusi, Ph.D. Anne Koenig, Ph.D. Julia F. Irwin, Ph.D. Phillip Levy, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 2, 2018 Keywords: Recipes, Early Modern Medicine, Global Materia Medica, Eighteenth Century Copyright © 2018, Ashley Lynn Buchanan Table of Contents Abstract ii List of Abbreviations, Names, and Dates iv Chapter One – Introduction 1 Chapter Two – Science and Medicine at the Late Medici Court 25 Chapter Three – Ingredients and Recipes 56 Chapter Four – An Empire of Materia Medica 90 Chapter Five – Recipes, Secrets, and Empirical Knowledge 108 Chapter Six – Turning Medical Knowledge and Authority into Social and Political Capital 142 Conclusion 178 References 181 i Abstract This dissertation analyzes the social, cultural, and political significance of recipes at the late Medici court. In doing so, it examines how the late Medici court used medicinal and pharmaceutical patronage to maneuver politically and socially as well as increase the court’s cultural cache throughout Europe. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, it was clear that the Medici line would end and that the Grand Duchy of Tuscany would become a satellite state of a larger European power. Yet while the late Medici court found themselves increasingly sidelined in the cultural and political landscape of Europe, science and medicine at court continued to play an important role, even as the purpose and weight of that role shifted. In fact, the late Medici court intensified its interest in pharmaceutical patronage and collecting of exotic naturalia. Both Cosimo III (1642-1723) and Anna Maria Luisa (1667-1743) collected exotic materia medica from around the world, which served their pharmaceutical productions and increased their empirical medical knowledge. For Anna Maria Luisa, distributing prized remedies and circulating her medical knowledge allowed her to build political alliances with European courts and aristocratic families in order to manage the political succession of Tuscany and craft the legacy of the Medici family. By focusing on recipes, this project reveals not only the important role medicine played at the late Medici court, but also the role of women in circulating and legitimizing empirical medical knowledge as well as the significance of recipes ii as agents of discovery and transmission in the desire to uncover or unlock the secrets of nature in the early modern world. iii List of Abbreviations ASF Archivio di Stato di Firenze (State Archive of Florence) MM Miscellanea Medicea (fondo within the ASF) MdP Mediceo del Principato (fondo within the ASF) BNCF Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale Firenze SAS Sua Altezza Serenissima/o (Your Serene Highness) SAR Sua Altezza Reale (Your Royal Highness) SAE Sua Altezza Elettrice/Elettorale VAS Vostra Altezza Serenissima/o VAR Vostra Altezza Reale VAE Vostra Altezza Elettrice/Elettorale RX Derived from the Latin word for recipes and means “to take” Names When contemporary and early modern identifications of an ingredient align, I use the modern taxonomy or common name. However, in many cases the early modern name of an ingredient does not provide enough information to scientifically identify a particular plant, mineral, or animal. In this case, I defer to late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth pharmacopeias as well as an iv eighteenth-century Tuscan tax ledger, which recorded the name, provenance, value, and use of every medicinal substance imported to or exported from Tuscany.1 Dates The Florentine calendar began on the 25th of March. All the dates between January 1st and March 24th have been converted to the Gregorian calendar. 1 ASF, Dogana di Firenze, Dogana Antica e Campioni XIV Secolo-1808, three volumes: 435, 436, and 437. v Chapter One Introduction This dissertation analyzes the social, cultural, and political significance of medicinal recipes and pharmaceutical patronage at the late Medici Court. Specifically, it concentrates on the medicinal and alchemical recipe collection of Anna Maria Luisa de Medici, Palatine Electress, as a case study. In the state archive of Florence filed under the heading of miscellaneous is a simple sleeve which holds a collection of over 200 recipes that were collected by the last Medici Princess, Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici (1667-1743).1 The recipes cover diverse topics from rare paint colors, deserts, essences, and fever waters, to concoctions to control epilepsy, poison antidotes, and lung inflammation, and even forms of lapidary medicine. The breadth of applications, both in the collection as a whole and for some recipes in particular, is remarkable. For example, a recipe for essences was made from citron (di Cedrato), Bergamot citrus (di Bergamotto), oranges from Portugal (arancia di Portogallo), oleander, and other unspecified herbs (e le altri di Erbe).2 Whether diluted in water or concentrated these essences 1 Archivio di Stato di Firenze (henceforth ASF), Miscellanea Medicea (MM) 1, ins. 2, fols. 1-218. 2 ASF, MM 1, ins. 2, fols. 168 r&v. “L’Essenze che la serenissima Elettrice Palalatina ha mandato alle serene Principesse di Sultzbach, sono di due specie e tutte sane; Ve ne sono di agrumi, cioè di Cedrato, di Bergamotto, di Arance di Portogallo e le altri di Erbe. Quello di Agrumi, e quello di Fiori d’Arancio servono per dar l’Odore alle Acqua dolci da bevere al Rosolio, all’Acqua di Bartades e simili, parimente per i Dolci che si fanno dal Credenziere servono ancora per mescolarne qualche Gocciola nell’Acqua per lavarsi le mani, per annaffiare 1 were used to perfume rooms to protect from malignant air, improve the taste of water, and scent linens and hair, as well as, enhance the aroma of baked goods.3 A recipe for infant convulsions called for the precipitation of a pulverized skull of a man who died violently but was never buried. Another recipe prescribed female rhino blood for strokes and general blood flow, and yet another recipe recommended the vaginal insertion of St. Ignatius beans to “lower the monster of women.”4 As short, straightforward instructions, recipes were one of the main forms through which early modern medicinal, alchemical, and scientific knowledge circulated, particularly among women.5 Anna Maria Luisa’s collection of recipes and therapeutics provides an excellent example and case study of the types of early modern recipes that were collected, gifted, and exchanged by women. By focusing on medicinal recipes, my research departs from the conventional narrative of early modern medicine that privileges trained medical professionals, the beginning of modern scientific methodology, and formal scientific institutions.6 Instead, through analysis of these non- le camere per dar’odore ai Fazzoletti, e a tutt’ altro, che si voglia inoltre a dar’odore alle Polvere, che serve per i capelli.” 3 Essences like the one sent to the princesses of Sultzbach were also considered therapeutics for fortifying the brain and protecting it from malignant humors or external poisons as Shelia Barker has argued in, “The Contributions of Medici Women to Medicine in Grand Ducal Tuscany and Beyond,” in The Grand Ducal Medici and Their Archive (1537–1743), ed. Alessio Assonitis and Brian Sandberg, Brepols, 2016. 4 ASF, MM 1, ins. 2, fol. 186r. The rhino blood, presumably from Africa—“Dos Sangue d Abbada, Serve este sangue para cursos, e fluxos de sangue.” And the St. Ignatius beans from the Philippines--“Para fave (fazer) abaixar o menstro das molheres” 5 Alisha Rankin and Elaine Leong, “Introduction,” in Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500–1800, eds. Rankin and Leong, Routledge, 2016, 1 – 20. 6 Until the mid-twentieth century, the history of medicine was dominated by the stories of “great men, great ideas, and great discoveries.” Looking at the history of medicine was seen as a way to enhance modern physicians’ medical expertise. With this interest in mind, the field traced the development of medicine through contemporary lenses of professional practitioners and 2 traditional sources, I reveal Anna Maria Luisa’s avid interest in medical knowledge and illuminate her involvement in the expanding early modern global trade networks. I also show the informal networks of medical knowledge that she created through recipe exchange with other aristocratic women as well as her relationship with people and objects around the world. I argue that recipes contributed to the development and circulation of a medical knowledge that Anna Maria Luisa translated into social and political currency. In this way, my research repositions women in the broader debate about early modern natural philosophy and uncovers important new intersections between gender, religion, natural history, commerce, colonialism, and indigenous knowledge in early modern medicine. As written forms of empirical medical and pharmaceutical knowledge and practice, recipes played an important role in early modern women’s medicinal activities.
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