Verissimo Orvietano di Roma. Le Veritable Orvietan de Rome, dispence par le Sr. Le Gros. [Back:] Den grooten Orvietan van Roomen, Beschermer van alderleye soorten van Verghiften, ende Fenijnen, heet oft koudt, ghedispenseert door v.l. Dienaer Le Gros, gheboren tot Genua, Operateur.

Broadsheet (30 x 18 cm): double-side printed, front side in French and Dutch on the reverse (somewhat used copy on coarse paper, toned, some staining, edges frayed with loss of part of woodcuts, small holes with small losses).

Extremely rare (unique?) advertisement for the famous medical concoction "Orvietan", very popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. Originally, Gerolamo Ferranti, from Orvieto, produced and sold it in early 17th-c. Paris. He pretended that Orvietan could cure poisons, scorpion stings, rabid animal bites, the plague, etc. Other charlatans were in the business, as Cristoforo Contugi quoted in our broadsheet. Sellers used to set up fairground attractions, asking "unknown spectators" to give them unknown poisons to swallow and watch them cure themself with the remedy. Later, the name of "Orvietan merchant" was given to charlatans of all kinds. In our copy, the French text was printed within woodcut borders illustrating two men and animals for which the remedy could be used, and the coat of arms of Philip IV of Spain. Dutch text on verso is in Gothic type
ref. Not in Opac KBR, UNICAT, BnF, KIT, etc.