Yawning makes one yawn, crying makes one cry. In the same way, a shiver, appetite, sexual desire and confidence are transmitted from one person to another. These examples capture the contagion-like dimension of emotion, spreading rapidly among people with tangible behavioural manifestations. Emotional contagion still challenges scientific explanation, and philosophical, scientific and anthropological topics converge around this issue. In Medieval Latin, there is a specific name for this contagion: compassio ('compassion'). Etymologically, 'compassion' means the co-experience of a 'passion', involving an involuntary reaction of the soul or the body imitating the reactions of others. The book investigates how these topics were treated in medieval learned texts, and illuminates the twofold enigma, that of the trajectory of the term compassio, and that of explaining the phenomenon it denoted.
By:
Béatrice Delaurenti
Translated by:
Graham Robert Edwards
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 19mm
Weight: 512g
ISBN: 9781526168887
ISBN 10: 152616888X
Series: Artes Liberales
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 April 2025
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction Part I: The Aristotelian Problemata Physica: A melting-pot for ideas of emotional contagion 1 Book 7 of the Problemata: A Guiding Thread 2 Distant Suffering 3 Contagious yawning 4 The shiver or shudder of compassio 5 The transmission of diseases Mid-way conclusion Part II: Other fields and sources, similarities and contrasts 6 Compassion and mercy in theology and pastoral ministry 7 Medical sources: Galen and Avicenna 8 Compassio at the Salerno medical school (1150–1200) 9 Compassio in scholastic medicine (1): Gentile da Foligno and Tommaso del Garbo 10 Compassio in scholastic medicine (2): Jacopo da Forlì, Ugo Benzi, and Jerome Torrella 11 Compassio in natural philosophy Conclusion Index -- .
Beatrice Delaurenti is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS)
