A few steps away from the Sistine Chapel is a room that looks, on first glance, like a kitchen, its walls lined not with great works by Raphael or Michelangelo, but a collection of blue and white ceramic pots. Not many visitors notice it’s even there, but the curators at the Vatican Museums hope that will change. Because the area, opened to the public last year, tells a fascinating story that’s been hidden from the world for decades.
16 May 2024, The Tablet
Restored to health
An ancient pharmacy, hidden away in storage for decades in the Vatican, has been recreated and put on show in its museums.
Superstition and science meet: apothecary discoveries at St Cecilia’s Convent in Trastevere with its ‘garden of simples’
Vatican Museums, Alessandro Prinzivalle
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