L´Antica Spezieria di Santa Maria della Scala was one of the convent pharmacies that were active in papal Rome in the 17th and 18th centuries, when many lay establishments were already operating in this same setting.

Since 2014 we have been working on the physical-chemical identification of the "simple" and "compounds" preserved in 231 bottles located in the main showcase of this old spice shop in Rome, from an interdisciplinary approach in which researchers and institutions from Spain, Italy, France and Switzerland have participated. The results obtained when analysing these substances and formulations by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy - X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) show a recipe book that straddles East and West, and integrates a drug-medicinal practice that combined magical thinking and the most scientific post-Paracelsus thinking. The historical-cultural study of these results offers interesting clues about who prepared these formulations and who consumed them and for what reason, and it is striking that this ancient galenic laboratory was used both by the poorest and the richest of Roman society in the 17th and 18th centuries, which included the nobility, royalty and the Pope himself.