Preface AGOSTINO PARAVICINI BAGLIANI Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction 1 Interpreting Medical Texts: the Polysemantic Nature of the Lexicon 2 Disease in Non-Medical Texts: Symbol and Literary Topos 3 Studying Saint Anthony's Fire Part I: The Burning Disease. Different Names for the Same Disease or Different Diseases with the Same Name? 1 Ignis Sacer ('Holy Fire') in the Ancient World 2 Ignis Sacer in the Late Antique World 3 Outbreaks of the Burning Disease: Epidemics of Ergotism? 3.1 The Historiae of Rodulfus Glaber 3.2 The Chronicon and Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes 4 Outbreaks of Ignis Sacer 5 The Meaning(s) of Ignis Sacer in Medieval Medical Sources 6 The Thaumaturgical Privilege of Healing the Burning Disease 6.1 The Greatest Thaumaturge: the Virgin Mary 6.2 The Burning Disease in Arras: the Miracle of the Sainte Chandelle 7 The Emergence of Saint Anthony's Fire 8 Saint Anthony's Fire and Ignis Sacer: Was It the Same Disease? 9 Saint Anthony's Fire in Medieval chronicles and Hagiographical Texts 10 Many Different Names for the Same Disease: the 'Wolf', Saint Fiacre's Diseases and Saint Eligius's Disease 11 Saint Anthony's Fire and Ergotism in the Early Modern Period Part II: St Anthony the Abbot, Thaumaturge of the Burning Disease, and the Order of the Hospital Brothers of St Anthony 1 A Brief Preface on the Antonine Order 2 The Legends of the Translation of the Body (or Bodies) of St Anthony the Abbot and the Birth of the Order of the Hospital Brothers of St Anthony 3 The Remains of St. Anthony in Lézat and Their Thaumaturgical Powers 4 The Emergence of the Antonine Order and St Anthony's Holy Remains as Treatment 5 The Hospital of Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois and Its Patients 5.1 The Hospital of Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois and the Hôtels-Dieu: the Thirteenth-Century Antonine Statutes 5.2 The Fifteenth-Century Antonine Statutes 6 Saint Anthony's Fire Sufferers at the Hospital of Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois: the Early Modern Period 7 Beggars, Impostors and Simulators: Feigning Saint Anthony's Fire PART III: The Discovery of Ergotism (Saint Anthony's Fire?) 1 Medieval Epidemics of the Burning Disease as Told by Historians in the 16th and 17th Century 2 The Discovery of Ergotism between the 17th and 18th Century 3 Saint Anthony's Fire as Ergotism? Contradictions in Eighteenth-Century Medical Texts 4 Ergotism in Nineteenth-Century Historiography 5 Ergotism and Convulsive Epidemics: Saint Anthony's Fire? 6 A Final Observation on Ergotism Conclusion Bibliography Index