spaltro

Ingredients

tus, myrra, opio, gingiuer, euforbio, reupontico, spaltro, custo, piper, cynamo, gariofoli, timiama, petroselino, saxifica, cassia sigilada, pulegio non fumicato, rosmarino, uetonica, agrimonia, saturegia, luuestici, apio

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The recipe for Ad cadiuo homine potionem probatam instructs that the twenty-four ingredients (including resins like tus, myrra, and spaltro) should be made into a powder, mixed with wine (cum miscis cum uino), and then given to the patient as a drink (potui dabis bibere) to treat epilepsy (p. 239-240).

Evidence

"the treatment presents a list of twenty-four ingredients (see Fig. 7) ... these include a number of the gums and resins seen in the recipes above, such as frankincense and myrrh... most significantly, however, the recipe lists timiama itself."

Remarks

The ingredient 'spaltro' (bitumen) is identified within a complex medical potion in the ninth-century manuscript BAV reg. lat. 1143 (p. 239). The author notes that the presence of thymiama and its constituent resins in medical contexts aligns with Carolingian efforts for liturgical and medical correctness (p. 248).