«Merge Record #»«Title» - Susanne Schulz-Falster

contraption was adopted by the Legislative Assembly in 1792, and in the following year
Chappe was appointed ingénieur-télégraphe. The optical telegraph was first used for an
official transmission in 1794, and remained widely in use in France until 1855, when it
was superseded by the electric telegraph.
This work was translated from a German publication issued the same year with the title
Beschreibung und Abbildung des Telegraphen oder der neuerfundenen
Fernschreibemaschine in Paris, but clearly published in Italy. A brief introduction to the
principles of the device is followed by an eyewitness account of the first conveyance of a
message from a device mounted on top of the Louvre. This is depicted on the first of the
finely engraved plates. The other plates show the agreed signals and the transcription of a
message in German.
There was another Italian edition, printed in Rome (Roma, si vende presso Agapito Franzetti) the same
year; not traced in NUC, RLIN or the Italian on-line catalogue; see E. Jacquez, Claude Chappe, notice
biographique, 1893 for further information on the optical telegraph.
Tarantella - Dance and Medical Phenomon
20.
CID, Don Francisco Xavier. Tarantismo observado en Espana, con que se prueba el de
la pulla dudado de algunos, y tratado de otros de Fabuloso: Y memorias para escribir la
Historia del insecto llamada Tarántula, efectos de su veneno en el cuerpo humano, y
curacion por la música con el modo de obrar de esta, y su aplicacion como remedio á
varias enfermedades.… Madrid, Gonzalez, 1787. $2800
Small 4to, pp. [iv], 324, with two folding engraved plates of music, and one woodcut illustrating a
tarantula spider; very clean and crisp, contemporary full vellum, faint ownership inscription or
stamp to title; a fine copy.
First edition, uncommon, of this medical and psychological assessment of the
phenomenon of the Tarantola or Tarantella dance, a trance like ecstatic dance. The origin
of this dance is found in a therapeutic ritual, carried out to fend off the effects of being
bitten by the tarantola, the wolf-spider. Popular belief was that the bite of this spider
caused a disease called 'tarantismo', which led to a period of melancholy and ultimately
death. The only way to avoid death was a frenzied, uncontrollable dance, set to music,
and called the 'tarantella'. Over time the music associated with this has become more
stylised, using guitars, violins, and tambourines.
Cid, an eminent physician in Toledo, studies the phenomenon in depth, beginning with
the natural history of the 'tarantola', with extensive reference to classical natural
historians, contemporary reports, and scientific study, and includes a survey of existing
literature on the subject. The following chapters deal with the effect of music on those
afflicted, before studying in detail thirty-five individual case, with medical reports and
contemporary assessments. In his conclusion Cid accepts the curative power of music
and ends with a chapter on the philosophy of music.
Tarantismo had its origin in Puglia, but apparently spread all over Europe, at the end of
the eighteenth century is reappeared in Spain with renewed force.
The two engraved plates of music show six different varieties of Tarantelas and one
Tarantela piece for guitar.