The Puzzle of Distribution

<h3>Abstract</h3> Focusing on the 1547 inventory of Manosque apothecary Rostand de Gréoux, this article examines different methodologies used in conducting studies of apothecaries and their inventories. By crafting a detail-oriented close reading of de Gréoux’s inventory, it questions concepts of the local and the “exotic,” and how to understand globality in the context of moving and transplanting natural materials. In comparing de Gréoux’s inventory to three other early modern southern French inventories, as well as to published medical works, it examines the manner in which different conceptualizations of compound remedies and their simples can change how we craft and understand comparisons. Both methodologies have their advantages and their drawbacks. In putting them together, this article seeks to investigate how we understand the processes of sourcing and making remedies through the records apothecaries have left behind. In doing so, it also promotes Historical Pharmacopeias, a digital collection of pharmaceutical documents aimed at shedding light on the practitioners and materials involved in the global medical marketplace, as a space that provides scholars with the tools to investigate the theory and practice behind past pharmacologies.