Vast sums of money were paid to apothecaries, who prescribed pills made up of arsenic, mushrooms and viper, which monarchs obediently swallowed. Other preventive measures included waving priceless objects over food or hoarding basins of live scorpions for the manufacture of anti-poison oil. Herman, woe to the tasters, who were tortured horribly. “If the royal intestines got into an uproar,” writes Ms.
In 1700s France, Louis XIV had his tasters kissing his napkins and licking his cutlery. By the time their lukewarm food was served, “it may have looked more like a dog’s breakfast than a king’s dinner.” By the Middle Ages, an entire army of tasters was dipping into meat pies to make sure the king and his relatives would not end up vomiting blood. Who would have guessed that behind the portraits of bejeweled royalty was an entire subculture of poison prevention?Īs early as 1198, Jewish physician Maimonides was warning his Egyptian sultan to avoid soups and stews, even wine, anything that could mask the taste of a deadly concoction. It helps that the author combines expert forensic research with a delicious sense of humor, so what might have been this reviewer’s usual diet of boredom and sawdust is actually a surprisingly amusing and intriguing adventure through the centuries.Īnd what an adventure this is.
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