Circulation of knowledge, competing therapies and exotic drugs

Between the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, the small Italian states had been progressively excluded from the global trading networks. However, in Italian cities, apothecaries stood at the forefront of medical innovation. This chapter introduces the forms of discursive and material circulation of sarsaparilla and China root in eighteenth-century Italian states – focusing on Turin – to address the forms of circulation and dissemination of information on the properties and uses of these products as well as the evolution of their commercialization and consumption. Particular attention is devoted to the role played by all those involved in the processing, promotion and sale of these remedies and their social diffusion. The present contribution is set at the intersection of different fields of research and historiography, namely Atlantic and global history, the history of material culture, the history of medicine and the circulation of knowledge in the Early Modern age. It aims to contribute to the overall plan of the book by analyzing how the circulation, diffusion and “translation” of knowledge regarding exotic knowledge intertwined with the professionalization of medical profession and with transformations in medical practice, showing how this process related to the creation of an Italian state.