(If this is more Cafe Society, feel free to move it, but it’s more of a historical/etymology question than about the drama).
I’ve been watching the Showtime series Borgia and am puzzled by what the characters keep calling “oil of vitriol” or “vitriolo.” If you’ve seen the series, you know it’s some kind of addictive pain-killing drug that was recommended as a cure-all by the Pope’s physician.
When I search on the Internet, I confirm what I’d already thought: oil of vitriol is the old name for sulfuric acid. I have never heard of sulfuric acid having any pharmaceutical or addictive properties. It just seems like a good way to burn your face off.
Is it a mixture made by adding sulfuric acid to other ingredients? Or just some alternative meaning for “oil of vitriol” that was common in the 1490’s, but that isn’t preserved in modern dictionaries?
“vitriolo” by itself referred to any of a number of sulphates. From Britannica:
No idea if there is/was some real-world medical use for any of these, such as that there would be some nostrum based on one of those compounds – however as mentioned, “oil of vitriol” has been understood to be what we now call sulphuric acid since the days of alchemy so it would have had to be extraordinarily dilute to be even remotely safe to use.
The way the product is described in the OP sounds more like laudanum, if anything.
That means its use in the show might be slightly anachronistic, but I’ll bet that’s what they were referring to. Wikipedia does suggest it might have been used before that first recorded synthesis.
Not medical, but cupric sulphate solutions are used as fungicides in other environments (such as agriculture). Who knows what was it used for back in the 16th century.
Diethyl ether does sound like a good match. Wikipedia says it may have been created in 1275, though the 1540 date is the only one that’s verified. That makes it at least possible, given a little creative license.
The characters don’t breathe it like I’d expect for ether, but I see that Wikipedia mentions a use by Polish peasants in the 19th-20th Centuries where they drink it by adding a drop to another drink. In the Borgia series, the doctor recommended adding two drops to a glass of sweet wine (though the characters pretty quickly start drinking it straight, and a lot more than two drops).
For something that’s a major plot point in the second season of a supposedly historical series, I’m surprised to have found so little information. I guess I’ll have to do some fact-checking on the rest of it.
Vitriol Oil is commonly theorized to have been a very weak sulfuric acid by modern alchemical buffs. But attaching scientific classifications to substances that alchemists themselves believed to be metaphorical in the first place, then add the fact that they most always wrote in code, and you see how hard it becomes to know for certain. In the texts I’ve read, vitriol oil was used as a reduction agent in the creation of “philosophic mercury”, which was supposedly a lot like not-so-much-philosopical mercury known today, except red in color. If anyone got that far is unknown really, because one more reaction and you would’ve had a Philosopher’s Stone. You know, make your own gold, immortality, the Holy Grail, off to school with Harry Potter, etc.,. I don’t know, but you know one guy who was really into pouring through ancient alchemical texts, Albert Einstein. According to his wife, it was his real passion. So I don’t feel like too much of an idiot doing it.
The medicinal use of oil of vitriol and white wine in Tudor times has just been mentioned on TV here in the UK, on a programme called ‘The Time Traveller’s Guide’. If ethanol and sulphuric acid together makes ether, could they have been making ether to drink/sniff in the glass?
Any organic chemists know if a drop of oil of vitriol in wine is palatable or poisonous?
I’d actually like to hear some thoughts on this subject from someone accredited in organic chemistry as well, specifically in regards to the mixing of sulphuric acid (rendered almost neutral by wine’s major ingredient: 99% water I know) with all of the complex organic compounds from the grapes (further complicated by the fermentation process). I’m not a chemist by any means, and can’t contribute much here, but I majored in organic chemistry for a year and had planned to pursue a career in the field. I ultimately decided, three years into college by the way(lol), to go into electrical engineering and computer science.
I would like to know: #1: If I’m even right about sulfuric acid being the main component of what was known to renaissance-era alchemists as vitriol oil a.k.a. vitriola. #2: Other ingredients. #3: Was it actually a common practice to ingest it mixed with wine medicinally as a treatment for some ailments? #4: Which ailments? #5: What specific illnesses would have fallen under the umbrella term: “Melancholia”(sp?) #6: Would renaissance-era alchemists have had any grasp of the nature of pH levels and their effects on chemistry? #7: Will one of the Borgias be able to commit some sexual act that is so depraved, so completely abominable, that they will finally win the the family honor of having all the others refer to them as: “The Real Borgia”. How about necrophilia with an animal of the same sex that you just whipped to death? Too conventional?
You’re definitely right about this one. That name is associated with sulfuric acid, and lots of sources on the Web confirm this.
On the other hand, your earlier posts about ambiguity in naming (intentional or otherwise) is also relevant. A modern chemist might recognize that adding sulfuric acid to something means that you no longer have any sulfuric acid left; an alchemist would not necessarily be aware of that, so might keep using the oil of vitriol term.
Based on the reading I’ve done, it’s likely that the Borgias (from a factual/historical standpoint) were probably not as bad as their reputation. Some of the accusations were probably unfounded attacks by their enemies. The Borgias were certainly people I’d have stayed away from, but the same could be said for most of their peers.
Thanks to everyone for all the information gathered here about this reference to Oil of Vitriolo in the TV series “The Borgias”.
There is mention that “…ethanol and sulphuric acid together makes ether” Am curious as to what the proportions would be? How much ethanol is added to how much sulphuric acid to create ether?