|
Tarantism
Tarantism is a form of hysteric behaviour originating in Southern Italy, popularly believed to result from the bite of the wolf spider '' Lycosa tarantula'' (distinct from the broad class of spiders also called tarantulas). A better candidate cause is '' Latrodectus tredecimguttatus'', commonly known as the Mediterranean black widow or steppe spider, although no link between such bites and the behaviour of tarantism has ever been demonstrated. However, the term historically is used to refer to a dancing mania – characteristic of Southern Italy – which likely had little to do with spider bites. The tarantella dance supposedly evolved from a therapy for tarantism. History It was originally described in the 11th century. The condition was common in Southern Italy, especially in the province of Taranto, during the 16th and 17th centuries. There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened excitability and restlessness that gripped the victims. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dancing Mania
Dancing mania (also known as dancing plague, choreomania, St. John's Dance, tarantism and St. Vitus' Dance) was a social phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. It involved groups of people dancing erratically, sometimes thousands at a time. The mania affected adults and children who danced until they collapsed from exhaustion and injuries. One of the first major outbreaks was in Aachen, in the Holy Roman Empire (in modern-day Germany), in 1374, and it quickly spread throughout Europe; one particularly notable outbreak occurred in Strasbourg in 1518 in Alsace, also in the Holy Roman Empire (now France). Affecting thousands of people across several centuries, dancing mania was not an isolated event, and was well documented in contemporary reports. It was nevertheless poorly understood, and remedies were based on guesswork. Often musicians accompanied dancers, due to a belief that music would treat the mania, but this tactic s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tarantella
() is a group of various southern Italian folk dances originating in the regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia. It is characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in time (sometimes or ), accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized forms of traditional southern Italian music. The specific dance-name varies with every region, for instance ''Sonu a ballu'' in Calabria, ''tammurriata'' in Campania, and '' pizzica'' in Salento. Tarantella is popular in Southern Italy and Argentina. The term may appear as in a linguistically masculine construction. History In the Italian province of Taranto, Apulia, the bite of a locally common type of wolf spider, named "tarantula" after the region, was popularly believed to be highly venomous and to lead to a hysterical condition known as tarantism. This became known as the "tarantella". R. Lowe Thompson proposed that the dance is a survival from a " Dianic or Dionysiac cult", driven underground. John Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lycosa Tarantula
''Lycosa tarantula'' is the species originally known as the tarantula, a name that nowadays in English commonly refers to spiders in another family entirely, the Theraphosidae. It now may be better called the tarantula wolf spider, being in the wolf spider family, the Lycosidae. ''L. tarantula'' is a large species found in southern Europe, especially in the Apulia region of Italy and near the city of Taranto, from which it gets its name.The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Ed.(2009), Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company. " edieval Latin, from Old Italian ''tarantola'', after . Historical superstition has it that the spider's bite can produce severe symptoms called tarantism. Description These spiders are rather large, the females being as large as 30 mm (1.18 in) in body length and the males around 19 mm (0.75 in). As with other wolf spiders, the silken sac containing over 100 eggs is carried attached to the mother's spinnerets, and then after they hatch, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Psychogenic Illness
Mass psychogenic illness (MPI), also called mass sociogenic illness, mass psychogenic disorder, epidemic hysteria, or mass hysteria, involves the spread of illness symptoms through a population where there is no infectious agent responsible for contagion. It is the rapid spread of illness signs and symptoms affecting members of a cohesive group, originating from a nervous system disturbance involving excitation, loss, or alteration of function, whereby physical complaints that are exhibited unconsciously have no corresponding organic causes. Causes MPI is distinct from other types of collective delusions by involving physical symptoms. It is not well understood and its causes are uncertain. Qualities of MPI outbreaks often include: *symptoms that have no plausible organic basis; *symptoms that are transient and benign; *symptoms with rapid onset and recovery; *occurrence in a segregated group; *the presence of extraordinary anxiety; *symptoms that are spread via sight, sound or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galatina
Galatina ( el, label=Griko, Ας Πέτρο, As Pètro; scn, label=Salentino, San Pietru), known before the unification of Italy as San Pietro in Galatina, is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Lecce in Apulia, southern Italy. It is situated about south of the city of Lecce. Main sights *The late Romanesque church of ''Santa Caterina d'Alessandria'', built in 1390 by Raimondello del Balzo Orsini, count of Soleto, with a fine portal and rose window. The interior contains frescoes by Francesco d'Arezzo (1435). The apse contains the fine mausoleum of the son of the founder, a canopy supported by four columns, with his statue beneath it. *The Baroque church of San Pietro (also known as Mother Church), rebuilt from 1633 on a previous Greek-rite edifice. *The ''Pupa'', a fountain in local limestone In the neighbourhood is the small church of San Paolo. It houses a well which, according to tradition, was able to heal people bitten by poisonous tarantulas (those bitten are call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latrodectus Tredecimguttatus
''Latrodectus tredecimguttatus'', also known as the Mediterranean black widow, or the European black widow, is a species in the genus ''Latrodectus'' of the widow spiders. It is commonly found throughout the Mediterranean region, ranging from southern Iberia to southwest and central Asia, hence the name. Specimens from central Asia are also known by the binomial name ''Latrodectus lugubris''; that name, however, is now considered improper, though it is still commonly found in the literature. ''Latrodectus tredecimguttatus'' was previously considered a subspecies of ''Latrodectus mactans''. Description ''L. tredecimguttatus'' is black in color, similar to most other widow species, and is identified by the thirteen spots which are found on its dorsal abdomen (the species name is Latin for "with thirteen spots"). These spots are usually red in colour, but may also be yellow or orange. It is otherwise similar to other species in the genus ''Latrodectus''. The Mediterranean widow p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francesco Cancellieri
Francesco Girolamo Cancellieri (Rome, 10 October 1751 – Rome, 29 December 1826) was an Italian writer, librarian, and erudite bibliophile. Biography Thomas Adolphus Trollope wrote a summary of his biography, which had been extracted were published by a Giuseppe Beraldi in a series called ''Memorie di religione, di morale, e di letteratura''. Francesco's paternal family was from Pistoia originally; his father had been a secretary to Cardinal Paolucci. Francesco was dispatched to be educated by the Jesuits at the Collegio Romano, though he never took vows as a priest. He was employed as secretary for various diplomats in Rome. However, in 1773, he lost important backers when the Suppression of the Jesuits was declared by Pope Clement XIV. In 1775, Cancellieri was appointed librarian for Cardinal Antonelli, whose library was located in the Palazzo Pamphili in Piazza Navona; this post Cancellieri held till the latter's death in 1811. He lived on No. 63, Via del Mascherone, in a small ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people). The series was originally published in English by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States. All versions around the world are printed by Grafica Veneta in Italy. A series of many genres, including fantasy, drama, coming-of-age fiction, and the British school story (which includes elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance), the world of ''Harry Potter'' explores numerous themes and includes m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Doll's House
''A Doll's House'' ( Danish and nb, Et dukkehjem; also translated as ''A Doll House'') is a three-act play written by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It premiered at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 21 December 1879, having been published earlier that month. The play is set in a Norwegian town circa 1879. The play concerns the fate of a married woman, who at the time in Norway lacked reasonable opportunities for self-fulfillment in a male-dominated world, despite the fact that Ibsen denied it was his intent to write a feminist play. It was a great sensation at the time, and caused a "storm of outraged controversy" that went beyond the theatre to the world of newspapers and society. In 2006, the centennial of Ibsen's death, ''A Doll's House'' held the distinction of being the world's most performed play that year. UNESCO has inscribed Ibsen's autographed manuscripts of ''A Doll's House'' on the Memory of the World Register in 2001, in recognition of their hist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playwrights of his time. His major works include ''Brand'', '' Peer Gynt'', '' An Enemy of the People'', '' Emperor and Galilean'', '' A Doll's House'', '' Hedda Gabler'', '' Ghosts'', '' The Wild Duck'', '' When We Dead Awaken'', '' Rosmersholm'', and '' The Master Builder''. Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare, and ''A Doll's House'' was the world's most performed play in 2006. Ibsen's early poetic and cinematic play ''Peer Gynt'' has strong surreal elements. After ''Peer Gynt'' Ibsen abandoned verse and wrote in realistic prose. Several of his later dramas were considered scandalous to many of his era, when European theatre was expected to model strict morals of family life and propriety. Ibsen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> A Doll's House")
