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SUMMARY:Early-modern investigations on the nature of tarantism from Tommas
 o Campanella to Antonio Vallisneri - Guido Giglioni (Warburg Institute)
DTSTART:20081030T163000Z
DTEND:20081030T180000Z
UID:TALK14110@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Lauren Kassell
DESCRIPTION:Early-modern natural philosophers\, physicians and churchmen d
 escribed tarantism as an epidemic disease characteristic of the Italian re
 gion Apulia and they attributed the phenomenon to the bite of the tarantul
 a spider. Tarantism was characterised by an irrepressible impulse to dance
  and was supposed to be cured by music. This paper focuses on the differen
 t explanations of tarantism given by Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639)\, Atha
 nasius Kircher (1601-1680) and Antonio Vallisneri (1680-1730). For Campane
 lla tarantism was further evidence that nature as a whole\, both animate a
 nd inanimate\, was governed by perception and that symbolic relationships 
 of likeness and resemblance could be causally effective. Kircher relied mo
 re on the physical and material aspects involved in both the etiology and 
 therapy of tarantism (vibrations of air caused by sounds\, motion of bodil
 y humours\, wrinkling of material spirits\, sense perception of colours) a
 nd his diagnosis was driven by a peculiar tendency to debunk unfounded bel
 iefs. Vallisneri\, finally\, interpreted tarantism as a simple case of ani
 mal poisoning and attributed the 'uncivil violence' and 'indecent and terr
 ible acts' of the affected people to their low social status. The choice o
 f these authors provides a nuanced and diversified sample of early-modern 
 explanatory frameworks for a particularly anomalous and recalcitrant pheno
 menon and to present a comparative analysis of conflicting notions of supe
 rstition discussed at the time.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, History and Philosophy of Science\, Department o
 f
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