The occult and tarantism in Holland in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: The work of Wolferd Senguerd (1646-1724)

Résumé 0

The present paper reconstructs the reflection of the professor of peripatetic philosophy at the University of Leiden, Wolferd Senguerd (Utrecht, 1646–Leiden, 1724), concerning tarantism and occult qualities. The issue was at the centre of the author’s concerns since his academic training. In the Disputatio philosophica inauguralis de tarantula (1667) and in the Tractatus physicus de tarantula (1668), tarantism is presented as a phenomenon consisting of many aspects traditionally explained through occult qualities. Senguerd wants to demonstrate that these aspects can be equally well explained without recourse to occult qualities. However, Senguerd’s position with respect to the occult underwent a redefinition reflected in the later Disquisitio de tarantula (1715). Within this work, the study of the many hidden aspects of tarantism is developed in a renewed experimental framework.