Le salut par la couleur. Mutations chromatiques et détection du poison dans les Giftschriften du Moyen Âge latin

Abstract

Considered as signum of poisoning by treatises on poisons written in Western Late Medieval Europe, colour takes also place among the skills that help preserving from poisoning because some stones are seen as able to reveal the presence of poison by changing or losing its colour when they are put on table, near-by plates or glasses. From several specialized texts and books of natural philosophy, this paper aims to know how the authors explained chromatic changes of stones in front of poison, if they believed in it and if their advices were heard and followed in late medieval courts.

Keywords

• poisoning
• Middle Ages
• stones
• colours
• medicine
• veterinary medecine