Medici, Catherine

Tobacco is a member of the nightshade (Solanaceae) family and its scientific name is Nicotiana tabacum. The name nicotine comes from Nicotiana after the French ambassador Jean Nicot (1530—1600). Nicot became familiar with tobacco when he was serving as ambassador to Portugal. Impressed with its use as a medicinal herb, Nicot sent seeds and cuttings back to the French Queen Catherine de Medici (1519—1589) in 1560, noting its therapeutic properties. Tobacco was called nicotiana and this was used for the scientific name. 

Jean Nicot introduces tobacco to the court of Catherine de Medici in... 

Calvin mistakenly ascribed the pamphlet to the French jurist Francois Balduin, a friend of Cassander s who brought his name to the attention of Catherine of Medici. She invited him to the Colloquy of Poissy, but health reasons kept Cassander from attending. See chap. 5, note 16. 

Marriage of Henri II with Catherine de Medici (introduction of fragrance production in Grasse, France)... 

Members of the Borgia family, especially Cesare and Lucretia, were active poisoners in Rome in the Middle Ages and the papacy was probably an important financial beneficiary. A relative, Catherine de Medici, practised as a poisoner in France and was probably one of the first experimental toxicologists. Purporting to be engaged in charitable work, she experimented with her poisons on the poor and sick. She was able carefully to record important observations such as how rapidly the poison took effect, what parts of the body were affected, the symptoms in relation to the potency of the preparation of the toxic agent. 

Around this time the first books and manuscripts describing perfumery techniques surfaced, and court perfumers took the stage. A contemporary of Elizabeth, Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) travelled to France to marry Henry II, and in her entourage were two skilled artisans, Tombarelli and Renato Bianco, skilled in the crafts of perfumes and poisons since court intrigue mixed affairs of the heart with affairs of the sword. Diane de Poitiers, a rival of Medici, was said to dabble herself in philtres, potions, perfumes and poisons. Nostradamus, the personal astrologer of Catherine, was known to inhale smoke and... 

The small town of Grasse, in the south of France, developed into a centre for perfumery, after Catherine de Medici (1519-1589) set up a laboratory there for the apothecary and alchemist Francesco Tombarelli. At the University of Montpellier she had research carried out into new methods of isolating scented materials from plants. At that time, the most popular perfume was Frangipani, an alcoholic extract of iris powder, musk and civet, invented by Maurice Frangipani, a descendant of that mighty noble Roman dynasty. 

In 1511, the first tobacco plants reached Spain. In the middle of the 16th century, Francisco Hernandez de Toledo, personal physician to Philip 11, and Andre Thevet, a Franciscan monk who converted to Calvinism, cultivated Ma-pacho Nicotiana rustica) as an ornamental plant. In 1560, the French Envoy to Portugal, Jean Nicot de VOemain (Fig. 5.200) sent tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum) to Catherine de Medici in Paris. 

When Christopher Columbus discovered America he found the natives chewing tobacco in much the same manner as is done today (1). The American Indians believed tobacco to have medicinal properties, and it was also used in native ceremonials in the New World. Once in Europe, the genus Nicotiana was named in honor of Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Lisbon, who sent the seeds of Nicotiana tabacum to Catherine de Medicis, the queen of France. The word tobacco was derived from an American Indian word referring both to a tube for inhaling the smoke and to a cylinder of leaf prepared for smoking. 

Even human relationships are figitred in terms of disputes over territory, when the soldier hired by the Gitise apostrophises Mugerotm whereas he is your landlord, you will take upon you to be his, and till the groimd that he himself should occupy, which is his own free land (19, 6-8). Only one entity in the play is taken to be secure and inviolate, and that is the power of Catherine de Medici, who says of her son King Heruy if he gradge or cross his mother s will, / I ll disinherit him and all the rest (11, 41-2), and ultimately it is she who is able to control the borders of both land and family ... 

The letter that he wrote the following day to Cardinal Borromeo is evidence that Catherine de Medicis did not appreciate the proposal to get rid of certain persons, and that she was far more angry than before when, following the express order she received from Pius the chancellor in particular was named. From which it... 

They were not wrong to believe that M. de I Hopital approved in his inner soul of the doetrine of the Reformed Church. In the speech reported by Mezerai, Catherine de Medicis did not dissemble on every detail. 

Those who say that he intended to portray Charles V [in The Prince] are very much mistaken [(M)]. It has been said that Catherine de Medicis made a particular study of this work and that she recommended it to her children [(N)]. Those who make this observation never fail to aeeompany it with many injurious epithets relating both to this queen and to Machiavelli. There are not many authors who write of him without attempting to denigrate his memory. " Yet some excuse him and attempt to defend him. " And... 

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