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Mesmerism

The circulation of animal magnetism theories and practices in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, and later worldwide, is both a significant phenomenon and one that has so far been little studied in its complexity.

The theory of the universal fluid and the magnetic therapies developed by Franz Anton Mesmer in Vienna became popular in Paris, where he settled in late 1778. Around 1784, they spread not only throughout France, but also to its colonies, to Malta with the network of Societies of Harmony, and all over Europe following the trajectories of learned, Masonic, mystical and esoteric societies, and of artistic and musical creation. The texts of the disputes that they generated were read, translated, commented on and re-elaborated throughout Europe and beyond.

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