instance, while in the sixteenth century, Venice was the economic capital of Europe, the prevalent capitals in the intellectual sphere were Florence and the Tuscan dialect. In the following century, Amsterdam achieved primacy in the European commerce and Rome and Madrid were the triumphant cities in art and literature.
primary cause of the malady, but it was soon revealed with the help of an informer that elite matronae were secretly concocting poisons within the privacy of their homes. Twenty women were caught brewing poisons in flagrante, and so they were led to the Forum to be trialled. Two of them, the patricians Cornelia and Sergia, suggested that the brews they had been preparing were only curative; but when challenged by the informer to drink their own poisons and thus prove the veracity of their claims, after