science and medicine in early modern venice 717
one would also have seen new foodstuffs being sold in the piazzas.
american plants transformed italian diets. although we cannot be sure
when the first plate of polenta was eaten in Venice, there is ample evi-
dence for the cultivation of maize in the Veneto, where it was destined
to become a staple, by the mid-16th century.49 The tomato took a little
longer to become part of the italian diet, and was always more popular
in the South because of the Spanish influence; but by the middle of the
18th century the culinary use of tomatoes had become widespread in italy.
other new World foodstuffs, such as the turkey, also became part of the
italian diet, transforming everyday life.50
articles of exotic natural history were on display not only in the streets
and marketplaces but also in Venice’s thriving pharmacies. a capital of
the european trade in pharmaceuticals, Venice had more than 50 apoth-
ecary shops in the mid-16th century, about one for every 3000 Venetians.51
The pharmaceutical trade thrived on the novel and exotic raw material
that poured into the city from distant parts of the world: crocodile skins,
basilisks, bezoar, turkeys, and egyptian mummies for making mumia, a
prized medicine that was used for a fantastic variety of ailments.52
Pharmacies were the original natural history museums. although like
other early modern cities Venice had its share of private curiosity cabi-
nets, most were the property of patricians and were rarely open to the
public.53 in the apothecary shops, however, ordinary Venetians could see
specimens of many of the exotic plants and animals newly discovered in
the americas, africa, and asia. The most famous natural history collection
49 Michele Fassina, “il mais nel veneto nel cinquecento: Testimonianze iconografiche
e prime experience colturali,” in angela caracciolo aricò, ed., L’impatto della scoperta
dell’America (rome, 1990), pp. 85–92.
50 david Gentilcore, Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy (new york, 2010).
51 richard Palmer, “Pharmacy in the republic of Venice in the Sixteenth century,”
in andrew Wear, r. K. French, and ian M. lonie, eds., The Medical Renaissance of the
Sixteenth Century (cambridge, 1985), pp. 100–17.
52 Palmer’s article on the Venetian pharmacies is still the most comprehensive study
of the subject. The wares of a typical, well-stocked Venetian pharmacy are described in
Prospero Borgarucci, La fabrica de gli spetiali (Venice, 1567). on the drug mumia, see Karl H.
dannenfeldt, “egyptian Mumia: The Sixteenth century experience and debate,” The
Sixteenth Century Journal 16 (1985), 163–80, who points out that the demand for the drug
was so great that it gave rise to flourishing trade in counterfeit mumia made from the
bodies of executed criminals.
53 on collecting in Venice, see Paula Findlen, “The Market and the World: Science,
culture, and collecting in the Venetian republic,” in B. aikema, r. lauber and M. Seidel,
eds., Il collezionismo a Venezia e nel Veneto ai tempi della Serenissima (Venice, 2005), pp.
55–68. This article has an extensive bibliography on the subject.