Abstract
This chapter examines the role of tarantism in the kingdom of Naples during the early modern period, in particular at its historical centre in the 'heel of the boot', then the province of Terra d'Otranto. Tarantism was -and, to a lesser extent, still is - a structured and ritualized response to deep psychological malaise, which included the evocation and discharge of the crisis by traditional forms of music and dance. The work which most fully explored the tarantula spider's bite and the musical 'antidote' was Athanasius Kircher's Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica. Athanasius Kircher was a famed Jesuit collector, natural philosopher and teacher at the Jesuit College in Rome. Based on the information provided by his two informants 'in the field', missionary priests at the Jesuit colleges of Lecce and Taranto, Athanasius Kircher concluded that the music and dance of tarantism was the remedy for the real bite of the Apulian tarantula spider.
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