# Malmsey

**Malvasia**

**Known today as.** Malvasia wine, named from Monemvasia, a fortress port on the coast of Laconia that traded the wine of the eastern Peloponnese; Venice dealt in it so much that its wine-shops were called *malvasie*.

Kind: Food & Drink

## What did Canale use it for?

To soak toast for the stomach after vomiting (ch. 5), and with spirit of wine in the oil for the bewitched.

## What does modern science say?

Now chiefly a sweet Madeira.

## Pharmacognosy and toxicology

- **ethanol**: in the fortified wines
- **sugars**: 

**Mechanism.** A sweet strong wine; in Canale the toast soaked in it after the vomit, with an aromatic rose confection, was to comfort the stomach from within. By a rumour current soon after his death in 1478, Clarence was drowned in a butt of it.

**Dose.** Alcohol; the same limits as any wine.

**Standing.** A wine of Madeira and of Crete.

## Sources

- “Malvasia” (Malmsey). *Wikipedia* (read 2 October 2026).
- Canale, F. (1622). *Del modo di conoscer et sanare i maleficiati*. Brescia.

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*Malmsey.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-03. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/malmsey

Historical description, not medical advice.