Unusual and Typical places to discover 
with Stéphanie Guidissime Provence©

The almond tree is a tree that can be seen along the roadsides of Provence in late winter and tells that spring time is coming...

The almond tree (Prunus amygdalus or Prunus dulcis) is a species of the Rosaceae family. It is a fruit tree with slightly pinkish-white flowers that appear before the leaves. It is the first tree to bloom in late winter, from late February to March, a period when it still freezes in the morning. It produces a fleshy stone fruit (or drupe) whose two-valved flesh dries when ripe, containing an edible kernel. The genus "Amygdalus" has 26 species and a long list of hybrids. To distinguish wild almond trees from cultivated almonds, the latter is called "common almonds." Harvesting time takes place in June-July for fresh almonds and in September for dried almonds. The almond tree adapts well to dry regions, such as Provence, which has a Mediterranean climate with long periods of drought, because it needs light, sun, and dry air. Its flowers are sensitive to cold, so it must be in an area that doesn't freeze during flowering, otherwise sub-zero temperatures can damage the buds. It thrives in stony, dry soils poor in organic matter; even in slightly salty soils, such as limestone, where it thrives, its only requirement is deep, permeable soil. This is why it is found in Provence.

It has been domesticated since ancient times. First in the Near East to produce sweet almonds, then throughout the Mediterranean region, and later, in modern times, in arid regions around the world. California is a prime example, as this US state has become the world's leading producer. Today, production in France is in decline, only 799 t in 2017 while it was 4,200 tonnes in 1990. Almond cultivation was carried out mainly in the areas of Provence, near the East Pyrenees and Corsica on 1,142 hectares in 2017. The almond tree is planted in lines on large areas of agricultural land but, at the time, it was found along the edges of fields. Provence was one of the regions that produced the most almonds, especially in the 19th century. This is why we find almonds in many recipes of our local traditions: the calisson of Aix, a sweet made from almond paste and candied melon; white and black nougat, a sweet made from egg white and honey for the white or caramelized honey for the black; The "croquant" crunchy, delicious biscuit...

The almond tree is one of the symbols of love and virginity, reminiscent of a wedding dress, as the flowers appear long before the leaves and each branch is completely covered in white.
In art, it was glorified by the most famous of painters: Vincent van Gogh, with the painting "Almond Blossom," painted in February 1890 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. He pays homage to his brother Theo's son, Vincent Willem (born January 31, 1890), to whom he became godfather. Out of pride and to honor this new life, the artist depicts the branches of an almond tree because, as we have already mentioned, the tree blooms the earliest in spring, already in February, adorning itself with flowers to announce its arrival: like a newborn. He drew inspiration from the Japanese art of engraving to depict an emblematic tree of Provence that is often forgotten...

A quarter in the town of Gardanne, located between Marseille and Aix.

In my neighborhood, there is a monument dedicated to the missing miners of Biver, a neighborhood or small village belonging to Gardanne, a former mining town. As you've probably gathered, I'm going to talk to you about mining, which is little known in Provence. And today, we'll see where this strange name "Biver" comes from.
The name of the neighborhood comes from a young mining engineer, a staff captain in the Belgian army, Ernest Biver, who decided to pursue a career in industry in 1854. Arriving in our region for a position in the mines, he quickly established new mining and management techniques.
It was after Ernest Biver discovered the mine shaft in May 1891 (sunk in 1893) that the village took its name. It became "Puits Biver" in 1926 and "Cité Biver" in 1946.

It's an unusual place that tells the story of mining in Provence and the "Corons de Provence", Provençal Miners (Coron is a nickname for the miners).

The poppy: an inevitable plant seen in our fields and along our roadsides in summer!The poppy is apparently native to the eastern Mediterranean basin. Called "Papaver rhoeas" by its scientific name, it is an annual herbaceous plant and belongs to the group of so-called "mesicole" plants, a word derived from the Latin "messio," meaning "harvest," as these wildflowers have been associated with agriculture since the dawn of time. It is part of the "Papaveraceae" family, belonging to the genus "Papaver": what we commonly call poppies. The word "Papaver rhoeas" comes from an Indo-European root "papa," meaning "porridge," and its seeds were cooked in this way. That is the reason why we call it in english: poppy, the noun is derived from Late Latin: papavum, popauer, from Latin papāver. The epithet "rhoeas" comes from the Greek ῥοιάς - rhoiás, meaning discharge (it is also found in the word "cold"), because of the latex that oozes out when the stem is cut. Its vernacular name in french, coquelicot, comes from a version of the Old French "coquerico" (onomatopoeia for the rooster) and was already written "coquelicoq" in 1545 because the color of the flower and that of the rooster's comb are similar.
Its flowering, very abundant in recently turned soils, and the setting of seeds occur before the harvest thanks to its biological cycle adapted to cereal crops. And it is from spring onwards that the poppy is distinguished by the red color of its petals and by the fact that they often form colorful carpets visible from very far away. Very common in various European countries, it has declined significantly due to the widespread use of pesticides. Even though we adore this flower, it is considered a weed by farmers.

The poppy represents "fragile ardor" but above all "consolation" in the language of flowers, and it is also the symbol of the eighth wedding anniversary in France. Some people say it is also the symbol of Morpheus, the god of dreams, but it is actually more precisely the poppy, which resembles the poppy and is, of course, from the same family.

In art, it is a commonly used and widely represented plant. The poppy is naturally found in many works of the 19th and 20th centuries thanks to the Impressionists who loved to paint landscapes, nature, and fields, such as Claude Monet ("Field of Poppies" 1873, "Field of Oats with Poppies" 1890). There's also Gustave Courbet, leader of the Realist movement ("Poppies"), and Gustav Klimt ("Poppy Field" - 1907), the Austrian Symbolist painter, and one of the most prominent members of the Art Nouveau movement and the Vienna Secession.
But I'd rather talk to you about a work by Vincent van Gogh: "Bouquet with Poppies" from 1886 (inset in the photo) because this artist is much better known for his sunflowers and irises! In fact, it was attributed to him rather late in life. This painting, which entered the collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1957 and has been preserved for over 60 years, has been authenticated and attributed to Vincent van Gogh after several decades of speculation. Louis van Tilborgh, a researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, said in a statement: "Some of these uncertainties related to paintings that turned out to be firmly anchored in Van Gogh's oeuvre, and 'Bouquet of Poppies,' I am pleased to report, is one of them." It is true that in the spring of 1886, Van Gogh arrived in Paris with his brother, Theo. The change of scenery would be reflected in his work, and he began to paint still lifes of flowers, later his palette would become vibrant and his contrasts dramatic. He analyzed the floral arrangement of Japanese artists in the ukiyo-e movement of the Edo period (1603-1868), and then devoted himself to working on the "intense nuances" in his work.

The Durance is a river going into the Rhone that rises in the Dauphiné region at an altitude of 2,390 meters on the slopes of the pi, called "des Anges" of the angels. Its source is located near the Italian border, in the commune of Montgenèvre in the Southern Alps region of Provence-Alps-French Riviera. The river continues its journey south, crossing the southern Alps to reach the Alps of High Provence. It then continues westward south of the Luberon mountain range, where its bed is at its widest. It ends its journey by flowing into the Rhone a few kilometers southwest of Avignon, between the Vaucluse and Bouches-du-Rhône provinces, which it borders.

This formerly flowing river created a wide alluvial valley in its southern section, the Lower Durance. It is one of the places where agriculture developed thanks to the good soil brought there over millions of years. Let's talk about an unusual fact: during the Miocene (12 million years ago), the Durance flowed south between the Cotes mountain range and the Alpilles, crossed the Lamanon threshold, and flowed directly into the Mediterranean, creating a large delta of which the "Étang de Berre" and the Crau are remains.
Unfortunately, it is still a "capricious" river due to its floods, even though they were much more frequent in the past. Moreover, Provençal tradition says that the three plagues of Provence were the Mistral (wind), the Durance (river), and the Parliament of Aix (government).

In art, Guigou and Monticelli, 19th-century Provençal painters and friends, settled in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance and created numerous paintings featuring the Durance as a backdrop or subject. In literature, the most famous writers of Provence have made it a theme or setting: for example, Henri Bosco made it a character in his novel "The Child and the River"; Jean Giono drew inspiration from it, as in "The Hussar on the Roof," which follows the course of the Durance.
One of the most beautiful representations of the Durance is in the form of a majestic sculptural group at the "Palais Longchamp" (Fountain considered as a palace) in Marseille, built between 1862 and 1869 by the architect Espérandieu to celebrate the arrival of the Durance's waters in the city, via the Marseille aqueduct.
To demonstrate that the Durance is known to everyone in Provence, and even in France, it is featured in a famous and popular song by Hugues Aufray: it is the river traveled upstream by the "little gray donkey" in the eponymous song.

The Vaccarès Pond, in the Rhône Delta, is located within the Camargue National Nature Reserve, which gives its name to the Regional Natural Park. Located in the commune of Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, it is surrounded by the Petit-Rhône River to the west, the Grand-Rhône River to the east and north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

It covers 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres), making it the largest pond in this wetland in Provence. It is called "étang" from the Provençal "estang," but it is not really a pond; it is what is known in geology as a lagoon (different from laguna). When a body of water is separated from the sea by a reef rather than a barrier beach, it is called a lagoon in French (we use the english word). This is the case here, since there is indeed land just before the dune ridge between Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer to the west and Beauduc to the east. Just to the south, by the sea, is the Monro Pond, a lagoon since it is separated from the sea by a dune ridge; it is clearly separated from the Vaccarès Pond by a reef.

"Vaccarès" is said to have originated from the fact that many wild cows grazed on its banks. The Provençal name, lou Vacarés (or Lo Vacarés), simply means a place where cows graze. The Camargue people nickname it the "Grand Mar" because its surface area looks like the sea.

Because of its size (12 km long - 10 miles), the Vaccarès Pond is a key element in the delta's water control system. Thanks to its depth, which is less than 2 meters, it is an important resting and feeding place for migratory birds, including the greater flamingo, which has chosen it as its nesting site. So much so that the bird has become a symbol of the Camargue.

Protected since 1927 with the creation of the "Camargue Zoological and Botanical Reserve" by the SNPN*, it became a nature reserve in 1975, called the "Camargue National Reserve." As a result, it remains one of the wildest and best-preserved sites in the Camargue. Although swimming and fishing are prohibited in the area classified as a reserve, and regulated in the unclassified areas, traffic remains free on the roads that run alongside the lake, allowing visitors to appreciate this unique inland "sea."

In literature, the pond is used as the setting for the novel "The Beast of Vaccarès" (La Bèstio dóu Vacarés in Provençal) by Joseph d'Arbaud (1874-1950), a herdsman, Provençal writer, and Camargue aristocrat who was close to the Marquis Folco de Baroncelli-Javon. Like the latter, Joseph d'Arbaud, a Félibre, tells, in Provençal, the story of Jacques Roubaud, a medieval Camargue herdsman, who encounters a strange beast, half goat, half man, and gifted with speech.

*National Society for the Protection of Nature (SNPN) is a learned society founded in France in 1854.

The Félibrige (lou Felibrige in Provençal), founded at the Château de Font-Ségugne (Châteauneuf-de-Gadagne, Vaucluse province) on May 21, 1854, is a movement that works to preserve and promote the language, culture, and identity of the Occitan language regions, particularly Provence. The seven young Provençal poets who founded it: Frédéric Mistral, Joseph Roumanille, Théodore Aubanel, Jean Brunet, Paul Giéra, Anselme Mathieu, and Alphonse Tavan, aimed at restoring the Provençal language and codifying its spelling.

In 1855, the Félibres' first creation was the publication of an almanac written entirely in Provençal, "l'Armana Prouvençau" (still published today). And, later, the most important of these publications would be "Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige" (The Treasure of the Félibrige), the first Provençal-French dictionary that also included the various dialects of the language of oc (languages, dialiects of the South of France).

The movement became famous thanks to Frédéric Mistral's publication of "Mirèio" (Mireille in French, typical feminin name in Provence) in 1859, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904: "in consideration of his poetry, so original, so brilliant, and so artistic, [...], as well as for his important work in the field of Provençal philology."

The term "félibre" (felibre), coined by the founders, refers to people dedicated to defending the Provençal language. A woman is called a "félibresse" (felibresso or felibressa).

Paul Ruat (1862/-938, founder of the Marseille Tourist Office) left a definition of the term "félibre": "And then, if you are ever asked what a félibre is, you can answer this: a félibre is a regional patriot who loves his country and seeks to make it loved; a félibre is a worker of the pen and the word who takes pleasure in speaking the language of his childhood, spoken by his ancestors; a félibre is someone who promotes and promotes our local celebrities, our artists of the trowel, the saw, and the paintbrush, so that a ray of these local glories may shine upon France, so that our great homeland may be ever more beautiful, stronger, and more united."

The origin of the word is a great mystery that is still debated today, but here are the various proposals of one of the greatest felibres of the early movement, Frédéric Mistral, who writes in his "Tresor dóu Felibrige":
« This mysterious word, quickly popularized by the works of those who adopted it, has since appeared in French dictionaries (Bouillet, Larousse, Littré, etc.). Its origin has exercised the sagacity of philologists, and many etymologies have been proposed:
1. Felibre comes from the Latin felibris or fellebris, a word found in Solinus*, Isidore of Seville**, and Papias***, and which Ducange**** interprets as "infant adhuc lacte vivens," derived from the verb fellare, to suckle, which fellare gave birth to filius, son. Poets have always been called "infants of the Muses, alumni Musarum," and, as M. G. Garnier observes, alumnus, in Latin, had both active and passive meanings and designated both disciple and master, like escoulan in Provençal. [...]
2. Felibre comes from the Greek "philebraïos," "friend of Hebrew," [...] which has long been applied in synagogues to doctors of the law.
3. Felibre comes from the Greek "phílabros," "friend of beauty."
4. Felibre comes from the Irish filea, poet, bard.
5. Felibre comes from the Germanic felibert, whose meaning is still unknown.
6. Felibre comes from the Provençal fe, free by faith. 7. Felibre comes from the Andalusian word filabre, whose meaning is unknown (Sierra de Filabres is a mountain in Andalusia).
As for the etymology explaining felibre as "book maker," it does not bear scrutiny, since it is not in keeping with the genius of the language, for in this case one would say fa-libre or fai-libre. »

*Solinus was a grammarian and compiler of Latin expressions, who lived either in the 3rd or 4thC.
**Isidore of Seville, a 7thC ecclesiastic and bishop, famous for his major work Etymologiae (encyclopedia of etymology).
***Papias was a Latin lexicographer who lived in Italy in the mid-11thC.
**** Ducange: Charles du Fresne, Lord of Cange or Du Cange is a French historian, grammarian and philologist of the 17th century, mainly known for his Latin Glossary.

One of the distinctive features of Provence is the typical vegetation found there, known as "garrigue" in french: srubland in english. It extends across the hills of this region, where it is easily accessible.

It is a characteristic formation of Mediterranean regions that grows on limestone soil and covers approximately 400,000 hectares (10 acres), mainly in Provence and Languedoc. This term is also associated with the layering of vegetation. "Garrigue" can be confused with "maquis" (2 different words in french to desrcibe 2 different srublands). Maquis grows on siliceous soil and is found in France, mainly in Corsica, and also in our region in the Maures and Esterel mountains.
The origin of the word "Garrigue" comes from the Provençal "garrigo," which in turn comes from the medieval Latin "garrica" ​​or "garriga." It is probably related to the Provençal term garric, "kermes oak," a shrub typical of our region. Another peculiarity is that the term contains the prefix gar: the pre-Indo-European root (along with gal, kar, or kal) meaning "stone" or "rock," also present in the words calanque, karst, chaux (lime), caillou (pebble), and Canaille (name of a Cape).

It is the ideal location for many shrubs, most commonly the Provençal gorse (above), the mastic tree, the kermes oak, the boxwood, the common juniper, and the scorpion broom (or thorny broom). Then, we discover other rarer or lesser-known bushes such as the Phoenician juniper, the buckthorn, the woody jasmine, the cottony rockrose, the camel, the sage-leaved rockrose... We also find some trees, even if it remains typically low vegetation, such as the holm oak, the cade juniper and one of the symbols of Provence: the olive tree. There are also the plants that make Provence famous such as savory, rosemary and thyme: the famous plants that are part of Provençal herbs; and then, some well-known herbaceous plants such as honeysuckle, sarsaparilla, wild madder, and others less famous like Montpellier aphyllanthus, asphodel, euphorbia, yellow ophrys... and many others...

In literature, the French writer André Gide wrote in "If the Grain Does Not Die" in 1926: "At the Saint-Nicolas Bridge, the road crossed the Gardon; it was Palestine, Judea. Clumps of purple or white rockroses adorned the harsh scrubland, perfumed with lavender. A dry, hilarious air blew over it, cleaning the road and dusting the surrounding area. (...) Along the banks of the Gardon grew asphodels, and in the riverbed itself, almost everywhere dry, an almost tropical flora." In art, Paul Cézanne is the painter who most represented this vegetation, even if it was not the main subject, thanks to all the works of Sainte-Victoire near Aix ("La Montagne Sainte-Victoire" 1897-1898 at the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg) or that of L'Estaque in Marseille ("Rochers de L'Estaque", around 1882-1885).

Located in the Var department (province), 16km (10 mile) east of Toulon, "Hyères-les-Palmiers," as it was commonly known in the 19th century, is a seaside resort known as Hyères (the official name).

The commune added "les palmiers" to the name because of the 7,000 palm trees planted in the commune and cultivated in nurseries, and because of an activity that had been present since the 19thC. From 1850, the first attempts to acclimatize exotic plants to the Côte d'Azur were made in Hyères, thanks to horticulturalists who exported palm trees and cacti.

From 1830, under the leadership of its mayor, Alphonse Denis, Hyères became a winter health resort renowned for its spa treatments. It was already frequented by the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, particularly the English, long before Nice and Cannes, as it was too dangerous at that time to cross the Massif des Maures and the Esterel mountains (mountains to the east towards Nice and Italy) by horse-drawn carriage. This tourist activity left an architectural mark that is still visible in the current urban landscape thanks to the second homes built, such as "Le Plantier de Costebelle" which is a neo-Palladian house built from 1857 by Baroness Hortense Pauline Husson de Prailly.

Like many artists who came to the Southeast for the sun and the clean air by the sea, Stéphen Liégeard (1830-1925), a politician and poet from Dijon, had a villa in Cannes (owned by his wife) where he spent the winter. In 1887, he published the book "La Côte d'Azur" (French Riviera), which gave its name to the seaside from Marseille to Genoa. In it, he described all the towns, including Hyères. He devotes seven pages to it: "Along this sun-drenched beach that deserves our baptism of the Côte d'Azur, Hyères was the first to have the idea of ​​putting its blessed gifts at the service of illness or despair. To the stricken soul, to the weakened body, what could it offer? Its countryside sheltered from the mistral [...]." This passage, misinterpreted, leads one to believe that the writer had come up with the idea of ​​"Côte d'Azur" in Hyères, something he mentions nowhere in his book, nor later in the 1894 edition.

The origins of Hyères date back to the 4thC BC. Around 325 BC, the Greeks of Massalia established a fortified trading post there in the place called Almanarre: present-day "Olbia de Provence". Olbia in ancient Greek means blessed, prosperous, fortunate... It was a "fortress-colony" whose purpose was to provide a stopover, shelter, military protection, and chandlery for Massaliote merchant ships on their way to Italy and vice versa. This site was definitively abandoned only in the 7thC in favor of a higher protection on the rock where the current historic center of Hyères stands, likely due to the submersion of the port and the increased insecurity along the coast.

However, this name does not derive from its ancient origins. Hyères is first mentioned in 963 in the form Eyras, referring to the entire site: the city with its harbor and islands. Called "Iero" in Provençal, the aspirated "h" does not exist in this language, which is a late graphic fantasy. In 1801, the city was written either "Hières" or "Hyères."

It comes from the Latin word "area" which meant "open space", then later took on the meanings of "courtyard, garden and area". So, it would seem that this name comes from the large salt drying areas, the salt marshes (Salins-d'Hyères) present since Late Antiquity. The Latin term "area" also referred to salt marshes.

The large village where I grew up already has a small reputation in classical music, as it hosts the International Piano Festival, considered "the Mecca of the Piano."

In the heart of Provence and nestled on the northern slopes of the "Trévaresse" hill range, it rivals the "most beautiful villages in France" of the famous Luberon mountain range, which lies opposite (a Regional Natural Park), in terms of its history and location.
The name of this small town is quite unique in the region. It comes from the name of the lord who owned his land and came to hunt there. Lord Tarron had a hunting lodge built at the top of the current village, on a rock in the hill. Cited in 1037 under the toponym Roca, the name of the town nevertheless has a controversial etymology: La Rocca d'An Tarron (in 1200), Roccha Tarroni (in 1274), Rocca d'en Tarron, Rocca de Tarronis... Whatever the case, we are indeed on the land of "The rock of Lord Tarron" transformed over the centuries into La Roque d'Anthéron! This is already a curious characteristic, however, part of its history is just as curious...

We are in the 15th century, the century of the Renaissance, a period of evolution of humanist thought and science, but also of diseases (influenza, plague, etc.), of freezing winters that led to famine and starvation, and then, among other things, wars, and a century still marked by the "Great Black Death" of the 14th century (1347-1352), which decimated more than 50% of the population.
It was in this context that Jean de Forbin, son of Jean II, Lord of La Barben and Autan, signed a "habitation agreement" with 70 families of settlers: La Roque-d'Anthéron was reborn and the center of the current town was to be built. Among these settlers, a large number were sons of Valdesian settlers who had been established in the Luberon for a generation, and they came mainly from "Cabrières d'Aigues", village of this mountain.

Another singularity: between 1557 and 1558, it was here that Adam de Craponne, the Royal Engineer, opened a revolutionary aqueduct carrying water from the Durance River from La Roque to Salon-de-Provence. This aqueduct was later extended (1581) by the Ravel brothers, former levelers of Adam de Craponne, to the Crau plain and Arles. This canal banished the spectre of thirst from the city of Nostradamus and enabled the construction of mills along its course.

Valerian is a plant that can be seen along the roadsides and paths of Provence, and of course in our gardens...

Valerian is the common namein English (valériane in French) for approximately 150 species of plants in the Valerianaceae family, mostly in the genus Valeriana. This name is said to come from the Roman province of Valeria, in Pannonia, an ancient region of Central Europe. And as one might suspect from its etymology, it does not come from the Latin valere (valiant, brave).

In these photos taken in my neighborhood, we see the species called Centranthus ruber, often called "garden valerian" or nicknamed "Spanish lilac" due to its Mediterranean origins. It is not a shrub, but a robust perennial. In abundance from May until early autumn, the flowers of garden valerian can be white, pink, or red. Red valerian has recently been added to the Caprifoliaceae family, rather than the Valerianaceae.
We distinguish between "garden valerian" or "red valerian" (Centranthus ruber), which thrives in poor, sunny soils, and its cousin, common valerian (Valeriana officinalis), which prefers cooler soils and partial shade. I'm mentioning this variety because this plant is well known as a medicinal plant. Common valerian is used in essential oils, but also in capsules and herbal teas: its root has anti-stress benefits that promote sleep.

Its representations in art are almost nonexistent, except in books. For example, here, in the slideshow, you can see the detail of a manuscript plate depicting a valerian stem [Pseudo-Galen, Kitâb al-diryâq (Book of Theriac). Jazirah?, 1199 - BNF, Manuscripts (Arabic 2964)]. This work presents the plants used in the composition of theriac. It contains 13 plant plates, and each plate, composed of six panels, shows one of the ingredients. The name of each species is written above the image in ornamental Kufic script.
Theriac is an antidote brought to Rome by Pompey, then developed by Andromache (Nero's physician). Later, Galen, physician to Marcus Aurelius (2nd century), contributed to its extraordinary fame! It was reputed to be effective against all kinds of poisoning: from plants like poppy and hemlock, from bites like those of rabid dogs or vipers, from stings like scorpions or blister beetles… In fact, effective against all poisonings and all kinds of venom, it was also said to be effective against the plague and many diseases…
Prepared by apothecaries, the composition of theriac varied greatly; and those concocted in Venice and Montpellier were very renowned during the early modern period. Taking over a year and a half to prepare due to fermentation, its recipe includes more than 60 plant, mineral, and animal ingredients: wine and honey, gentian, pepper, myrrh… dried viper flesh and beaver kidneys, for example. The formula went from 74 ingredients in antiquity then reduced to 58 before the revolution to reach 52 during the last public preparation which took place in September 1790. Consumed until the end of the 19th century, theriac was removed from the Codex in 1884 for various reasons including the rejection of empirical medicine at that time.