Aqua Tofana (also known as Acqua Toffana and Aqua Tufania) was a strong, arsenic-based poison created in Sicily around 1630 that was reputedly widely used in Palermo, Naples, Perugia, and Rome, Italy, during the Renaissance. The name Aqua Tofana has evolved to refer to a category of slow poisons that are deadly but largely undetectable, just as Aqua Tofana was. These slow poisons may have been used frequently through the nineteenth century. It has been associated with Giulia Tofana, or Tofania, a woman from Palermo, purportedly the leader of a ring of six poisoners in Rome, who sold Aqua Tofana to Italian women who wanted to kill their husbands.

History

The first recorded mention of Aqua Tofana is from 1632–33thumb|19th century engraving showing Poison "Manna di San Nicola" (Aqua Tofana), by [[Pierre Méjanel. This image is part of an anti-Masonry hoax.]]Aqua Tofana was camouflaged in bottles labeled "Manna di San Nicola" ("Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari"), a marketing device intended to divert the authorities, giving the poison an appearance of cosmetic and a devotional object in vials that included a picture of St. Nicholas. Over 600 victims still extracted from San Nicolas's bones in a church located in Bari, Italy.

Ingredients

The active ingredients of the mixture are known, but not how they were blended. Aqua Tofana contained mostly arsenic and lead, and possibly belladonna. Belladonna is a flower, which was commonly used in cosmetics at the time to enlarge pupils. It was a colorless, tasteless liquid and therefore easily mixed with water or wine to be served during meals. Its tasteless properties signify that it was made with a deliberate attempt to hide the potent metallic taste of arsenic. is completely unsubstantiated, even though it was Mozart himself who started this rumor.

Modern day social impacts

Almost 400 years later, Aqua Tofana is making a comeback as a key symbol in feminist discourse. Inspired by South Korea's feminist 4B movement, women in the United States have coined the slogan MATGA (Make Aqua Tofana Great Again), referencing both Donald Trump's slogan MAGA and Giulia Tofana's poison. This movement began out of concern that Trump's presidential victory puts reproductive rights at risk. It is also a direct retaliation to the misogynistic phrase 'Your body, my choice' that was repeated after Trump's win. Women participating in this social media trend have posted videos in which they pretend to make Aqua Tofana and add the fake concoction into men's drinks. One woman went viral for her video opening a piece of jewelry with a compartment, opening it to flash the camera with a devious smirk, captioning her video that American women would understand her reference to Aqua Tofana and that "they", meaning Donald Trump and his supporters, asked for this.

References

  • Definition at thefreedictionary.com
  • Definition at infoplease.com