Contagio e immaginazione

Abstract

When we examine the Latin origin of the word ‘contagion’ as referred to the transmission of diseases, we discover that the primary referent of the term is the most corporeal thing one could imagine: the physical act of touching, contact, and therefore also the sense of touch. Being thus suspended between physical contact and immaterial influence, the term ‘contagion’ entails a disturbing tangle of meanings in which body, emotion and imagination are intertwined. This idea of contagion was studied in all its possible facets by the Flemish physician Jan Baptista van Helmont (1579-1644) – indeed, it could be said that the phenomenon of contagion is the basis of his medical-philosophical speculations.