Giulia Tofana

d. 1651

Giulia Tofana was a seventeenth-century Italian woman whose name became attached to Aqua Tofana, a notorious poison said to have been supplied to women seeking to kill abusive or unwanted husbands. The surviving historical record is much thinner than the later legend. Documentary scholarship connects a Giulia Mangiardi, also known as Tofana, with Palermo and Rome and records her death in 1651.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the story grew dramatically, accumulating claims about a vast poisoning network, hundreds of victims and a spectacular execution. Those details should be treated cautiously. Her historical importance lies as much in the evolution of the legend as in what can securely be established about her own life, making her a particularly complex subject for historical fiction.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Giulia Tofana (1 series)

Giulia Tofana in Order

by Deborah Swift 4 books 4.3(11,811)

The Giulia Tofana series reimagines the legendary poisoner against the courts, convents, workshops and political intrigues of seventeenth-century Italy. Beginning with Giulia’s flight to Naples, the sequence follows her attempts to survive a reputation built around Aqua Tofana while protecting those closest to her. Later volumes carry the…