Brewer's: Orvietan

(3 syl.) or Venice treacle, once believed to be a sovereign remedy against poison. From Orvieto, a city of Italy, where it is said to have been first used.

“With these drugs will I, this very day, compound the true orvietan.” —SirWalterScott: Kenilworth, chap. xiii.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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