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The present paper deals with the reflection on Apulian tarantism – the disease produced by tarantula’s poison – of the Dutch philosopher Wolferd Senguerd (1646-1724). According to him, tarantism is a phenomenon which consists of many aspects explained previously throughout different traditional occult qualities; the various occult aspects of tarantism are clarified by Senguerd using several “scientiae”, such as natural history, physics and medicine. Showing this particular view of tarantism, the first part of this paper is dedicated to the analysis of Wolferd’s thought about tarantism and occult qualities, with particular reference to the analysis of the wondrous effects deriving from tarantula’s poison. The second part focuses on how Senguerd used his source, namely Athanasius Kircher and Giorgio Baglivi, in order to prove that there is no chromatic attraction in those who are poisoned by the spider.
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- Giovanni Silvano, Vittoria Feola. Foreword
- Notes on contributors
- Fabrizio Baldassarri, Fabio Zampieri. Scientiae in the History of Medicine: an Introduction
- Fabio Zampieri. The University of Padua Medical School from the Origins to the Early Modern Time: A Historical Overview
- Cynthia Klestinec. The Anatomy Theater: Towards a Performative History
- Florike Egmond. Sixteenth-Century University Gardens in a Medical and Botanical Context
- Alberto Zanatta. The Origin and Development of Medical Museum Heritage in Padua
- Roberta Ballestriero. The Science and Ethics concerning the Legacy of Human Remains and Historical Collections: The Gordon Museum of Pathology in London
- R. Allen Shotwell. Between text and practice: the anatomical injections of Berengario da Carpi
- Maria Kavvadia. Sources and resources of court medicine in Mid-Sixteenth Rome: erudition as an epistemological and ethical claim
- Alessandra Celati. The experience of the physician Girolamo Donzellini in the 1575 Venetian plague: between Scientia and heterodoxy
- Elisabeth Moreau. Pestilence in Renaissance Platonic medicine: from astral causation to pharmacology and treatment
- Fabrizio Baldassarri. Elements of Descartes' medical Scientia: books, medical schools, and collaborations
- Luca Tonetti. Testing drugs in Giorgio Baglivi's dissertation on Vesicants
- Manuel De Carli. Tracing Senguerd's footprints: sciences and tarantism at Leiden Universtiy (1667-1715)
- Pierdaniele Giaretta. Classifications from an epistemological point of view with particular attention to the classifications of diseases
- List of abstracts