Origins in Sicily
In the early 1630s a potent arsenic based poison known as Aqua Tofana appeared in Sicily. The first recorded cases date to 1632–33, when Francesca la Sarda and Teofania di Adamo used it.
Teofania was executed. Associates including Giulia Tofana and Gironima Spana later operated in Rome. Accounts link their arsenic supply to Father Girolamo of Sant’Agnese in Agone, whose apothecary brother had access.
Bottles and Buyers
Aqua Tofana was sold in Palermo, Naples, Perugia, and Rome in devotional looking vials labeled “Manna di San Nicola.” Sources describe it being sold to women who wanted to kill their husbands at a time when divorce was not available to many wives.
Reports alleged more than six hundred deaths, mostly husbands. Giulia Tofana died without arrest. In 1659 authorities hanged five women tied to the trade, and forty clients received life sentences. Between 1666 and 1676 the Marchioness de Brinvilliers poisoned relatives in France and was executed in 1676.
What it contained and how it worked
Descriptions list arsenic and lead as the main components, with possible belladonna. The liquid was colorless and tasteless, so it could be mixed into water or wine. Accounts describe a slow course that resembled illness consistent with arsenic poisoning.
Early doses brought cold like signs that progressed to vomiting, dehydration, diarrhea, and burning in the throat and stomach. Writers noted advice such as vinegar and lemon juice as an antidote. The name Aqua Tofana later became a label for slow poisons that were deadly and hard to detect, and writers claimed such mixtures were used into the nineteenth century.
Exposure and later echoes
Versions differ on how the Roman operation was exposed. One says a client confessed and received immunity. Another reports that a messenger carrying the liquid was caught and led investigators to makers and sellers. A later story claimed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was killed with Aqua Tofana.
That claim lacks evidence, and Mozart himself helped spread the rumor. Centuries later the name appeared in online discourse after the 2016 United States election, including posts that referenced Aqua Tofana under the acronym MATGA and short clips that pretended to prepare or hide the liquid.
Disguised as a saint’s “manna,” a clear liquid slipped through 17th-century Italy.
Called Aqua Tofana, it was sold to women who wanted to kill their husbands, tasted like nothing in wine, and would later send makers and clients to the gallows…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/W9IGxRnP1k
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) August 24, 2025