Franck Collard . The Crime of Poison in the Middle Ages . Translated by Deborah Nelson‐Campbell . Westport, Conn. : Praeger . 2008 . Pp. xviii, 292. $49.95.

Abstract

Widely acclaimed in francophone circles, Franck Collard's 2003 study of poisoning in medieval Europe received relatively little attention from English-language reviewers. One hopes that this translation will rectify that situation. At the book's heart are some four hundred cases of alleged criminal poisoning found in narrative and judicial sources from 500 to 1500 c.e. A rare crime, poisoning appears to have increased dramatically after the mid-thirteenth century. Sixty percent of Collard's cases come from the later Middle Ages, as do numbers of treatises about poison. Collard admits, however, that “the only measurable reality is perceived reality” (p. 21). Focusing, accordingly, on the imaginary of poison, he ably demonstrates its relevance for a wide variety of topics. Poisoning did not constitute a separate category of crime before the early modern era. In Roman law and throughout the Middle Ages, the meaning of veneficium mingled with that of magic. Furthermore, there existed no single judicial procedure for cases of poison, which were dealt with in a variety of secular and ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The heinous and secretive nature of the crime subjected those accused of it (such as witches) to torture, but convicted poisoners only rarely suffered the harshest of penalties. In Collard's sources, much poison (like much magic) comes from elsewhere: the Orient, the land of Islam, the Iberian peninsula. But experts closer to home also could provide poison, and Collard offers a fascinating laundry list of poisons, remedies, and preventive measures. Inventories of ecclesiastical and lay lords confirm the late medieval paranoia about poison, as they brim with unicorns' horns that could neutralize venom and snakes' tongues that would sweat in poison's presence.