Description:
Decorated with numerous well painted panels in green, yellow, ochre and grey on a blue ground containing a classical bust surrounded by griffins, a lion, trophies, foliage and a label with the name of the drug painted in a fictive label around the central body of the vase (TRIFERA MAGNIA).

Label Text:
Large drug containers of this shape were used in Renaissance pharmacies to hold either dry or
sticky compounds. The inscription Zuccarum violarum identifies the contents of one jar as a
sweet confection made from violets. The other held Trifera magnia, a remedy concocted
using opium, cinnamon, henbane seeds, two different medicinal rhizomes, and other
ingredients. It was used as a treatment for gastric pains and to induce sleep. Albarelli often did not have ceramic lids, but were sealed instead with parchment squares
tied below the rim with string.

(2007)

Tags:
pottery; containers; medicine; vessels

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2002.3.2

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