The Mysterious Countess and 250 Recipes from the 1600s: Discovered in a Flea Market and Kept for 40 Years

From a flea market, half-hidden among postcards and other memorabilia, over two hundred and fifty phytotherapeutic recipes from the 1600s have emerged.

It was an ancient history enthusiast who found them and bought them, perhaps snatching them from a landfill. Paolo Ceredano kept them for more than forty years, then last year, after taking and passing an exam in Medieval History of Philosophy, he offered one of those prescriptions dated 1678 to the professor who studies the history of philosophical and scientific thought in the late ancient, medieval and humanistic ages, with particular attention to the history of medicine.

"I said I couldn't accept such a precious gift ," explained Professor Gabriella Zuccolin, "and the scholar replied that he had at least two hundred and fifty other recipes." Thus began to outline the fascinating story of a mysterious woman, Countess Scaramella of Frossasco , a small town near Pinerolo. In fact, all the recipes were prepared by an anonymous doctor for the Countess.

"The prescriptions were not all for the countess who was in poor health - added Zuccolin - and it is well specified. There are recipes for the count, but also for the gardener, the seamstress and the gardener's son. This tells a lot about how the woman took care of the whole house, but also about the medical knowledge that some women possessed even though they could not yet access medical school".

Written in Latin, the recipes could not be understood by those without a cultural background. It is likely, therefore, that Scaramella had at heart the well-being of her family and also that of those who worked for her and was concerned with identifying the herbs to collect to prepare the herbal teas.

" All the recipes are quite short, " added the teacher, "written on sheets of paper that we have now catalogued and protected so that they do not get lost. Two recipes are longer, however: one concerns "divine water" and another was a prescription to cure an epidemic of rinderpest that actually raged at that time."

Other prescriptions such as the “royal herbal tea” made with tamarind, coriander, anise, burnet, and soda sulphate would be difficult to prepare today because not all herbs are easily found.

"In the past - continued Professor Gabriella Zuccolin - people always treated themselves with herbs. They were the so-called grandmother's remedies".