Taddeo de Consonni — Testimone Italiano del Metodo Lafontaine (Firenze, 1850)/en
| 📚 Fonte primaria: opere di Charles Lafontaine (1803-1892) |
| Questa pagina deriva dalle opere autobiografiche e didattiche del Charles Lafontaine (1803-1892), il magnetizzatore franco-svizzero che a Manchester nel 1841 colpì James Braid e da cui Braid sviluppò la parola «hypnotism». Lafontaine è il fondatore della scuola continentale dell'ipnotismo magnetico applicato in pubblico e in clinica, e il maestro diretto di Taddeo de Consonni in Italia (Firenze, 1850).
Documenti Drive ISI-CNV — biblioteca Lafontaine completa:
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Taddeo de' Consonni (active c. 1840–1855) is an Italian mesmerist and academic whose work La esistenza e spiritualità dell'anima distinta dallo spirito sensitivo (c. 1850–1851) constitutes the most direct and documented Italian testimony of the passage of the Method of Charles Lafontaine into the Italian mesmeric tradition. The book, published to accompany about thirty free public academies held by the author, contains sworn attestations, direct quotations, and critical judgments on Lafontaine: a primary source of exceptional value because it documents Lafontaine's physical presence in Florence in 1850 and the public adoption of his method before medico-scientific societies.
Why This Testimony Is Unique
The historiography of hypnotism knows Lafontaine mainly through his French and English tours (the episode of Braid in Manchester in 1841). Lafontaine's connection with Italy, however, is almost unknown. Consonni's work fills this gap: it is a contemporary document, written by a witness-protagonist, which certifies — with declarations made "under oath, in Court and out, for every legal effect" — that Lafontaine's Method was publicly practiced in Florence in September 1850, and that an eyewitness saw both Lafontaine and Consonni operate in the same city with the same method.
This places Consonni as an Italian link in the European historical chain: du Potet → Lafontaine → (via Italian: Consonni) → Donato.
The Academy of September 14, 1850 at the Tuscan Medico-Physical Society
The documentary core is a series of attestations appended by Consonni to his work. The first, collective and sworn, concerns the public academy held on September 14, 1850 at the Tuscan Medico-Physical Society of Florence:
- «We the undersigned declare, also under oath, that on the fourteenth of September last, when Professor T. Nobile Dei Consoni gave the Academy on the principal phenomena of the fluid [...] Mesmerism to the Tuscan Medico-Physical Society in Florence, all the experiments were performed using the method of Mr. Lafontaine (abstracting from the use of his tubes) and were fully successful, according to the announced Program...»
The witnesses specify that the acting President, at the close of the meeting, greeted and thanked Consonni "for the beautiful things he had shown."
Other individual signatories confirm the regularity of the experiments, conducted in the library of the Archispedale of Santa Maria Nuova before the Medico-Physical Scientific Body: Doctor F. Giacomelli (academic, who himself underwent a magnetism test falling "into a state of drowsiness while still feeling the effects of magnetic power"), Baldini Giuseppe, Francesco Giacomelli, and the subjects Carolina Pancialfini, Ilaria Cipriani, and Artemisia Cartelloni.
The Direct Proof: Maestro Giuseppe Sborgi Saw Both Operate
The historically most relevant passage is the declaration of Music Master Giuseppe Sborgi, who attests to having personally attended the experiments of both magnetizers:
- «[The] Music Master Giuseppe Sborgi declares and attests to the above, having attended both Mr. Lafontaine and Professor Dei Consoni in their magnetic experiments, performed in Florence with the same Method.»
This is the documentary proof that Lafontaine was physically active in Florence and that the relationship between the two was that of method-master / applicator-student: Sborgi saw one and the other operate, and recognized the identity of method. A second collective attestation (signed Pancialfini, Cipriani, Cartelloni) reiterates that Consonni, "having adopted in performing his Mesmeric experiments the Method of Mr. Lafontaine," repeatedly invited the signatories to serve as subjects, both at the Medico-Physical Academy and "in other Noble Houses and private Societies."
Consonni's Impressions and Judgments on Lafontaine
Consonni is not a passive imitator: he discusses, criticizes, and engages with Lafontaine, whose theoretical work he shows he knows thoroughly.
- Esteem and historical placement. Consonni calls Lafontaine "the valiant La Fontaine" and lists him among "the most renowned magnetizers in England, Germany, and France," recognizing his European stature — and noting that he operated "in Italy, indeed in Florence."
- Direct knowledge of texts. Consonni precisely cites Lafontaine's work "on the art of magnetizing, Paris 1847" (L'Art de magnétiser), referring to page 344, a sign of careful, first-hand reading.
- Theoretical agreement on the fluid. Consonni notes that "even Mr. Lafontaine believes that the cause of magnetic effects or phenomena is unique and entirely material, maintaining it to be solely the nervous fluid": both belong to the materialist fluidist school.
- Methodological criticism. Consonni objects, however, that Lafontaine, "neither in the historical summary nor in the exposition of his Theory," would have given "a sufficient definition of Magnetism," and proposes to fill this gap with his own definition.
- Direct interlocution. Particularly significant is the phrase in which Consonni declares he made remarks to Lafontaine in person: "not even the renowned Lafontaine in his verbal or written digressions, as I repeatedly had occasion to point out to him." The expression presupposes a direct dialogue between the two.
- Claim of originality. Consonni claims his own technical innovation compared to Lafontaine's contact method: the "tubes" saturated with his "vital nervous fluid," which he compares to "a Leyden jar," capable of putting to sleep and "numbing in an instant without ever touching" the subject. He maintains that with them he obtained results that "with other contact methods" required "a time of well six or eight times" longer.
The Sworn Testimony of Giuseppe Sborgi (Verbatim)
On pages 60–61 of his work, Consonni appends the collective attestation made "under oath" by the assessors present at the Academy of September 14, 1850. The text, transcribed from the original, reads:
«We the undersigned declare, also under oath, that on the fourteenth of September last, when Professor T. Nobile Dei Consoni gave the Academy on the principal phenomena of the vital nervous fluid or Mesmerism to the Tuscan Medico-Physical Society in Florence, all the experiments were performed using the method of Mr. Lafontaine (abstracting from the use of his tubes) and were fully successful, according to the announced Program, except for some final matters concerning Clairvoyance, which there was no time to perform...»
Following this attestation, separate and signed apart, is the declaration of the court musician:
«The Music Master Giuseppe Sborgi declares and attests to the above, having attended both Mr. Lafontaine and Professor Dei Consoni in their magnetic experiments, performed in Florence with the same Method.»
Giuseppe Sborgi was not just any witness: he was attached to the Royal Grand Ducal Chapel of Tuscany, author of musical scores, and member of numerous artistic academies. His name also appears later in the work, when Consonni recounts that during the sessions Sborgi accompanied the demonstrations on the piano with "pathetic harmonious cadences," while the subjects in a state of ecstasy moved "according to the acts" of the magnetizer's will. His testimony is the clearest documentary proof that Charles Lafontaine physically operated in Florence and that a direct observer recognized the identity of method between Lafontaine and Consonni.
The "Session Program" with the Lafontaine Method
On pages 261–262 of his work, Consonni reproduces the "Session Program," i.e., the ordered structure of his public demonstrations, declaring that he operated "always in conformity with what he performed in many more or less numerous Societies, and especially in the Salon of the Standish Palace near H.H. Prince M. Poniatowski before and after September 14, 1850." It is the document that most closely resembles a lesson plan of the magnetic method in Italy in 1850.
The First Part of the program opens thus:
«1.° He will induce sleep in an instant, by means of his recently invented instrument, without touching the Subjects, turning his back to them, so that it cannot be supposed that he puts them to sleep and numbs them with his eyes; indeed, he will also read aloud together with the Subjects, as many books presented to him by the Noble Assembly, so that it may not be believed that he magnetizes with intention, as he already performed other times in Public and at the Medico-Physical Academy in Florence on September 14, 1850.»
The "recently invented instrument" is described in the footnote: the famous glass "tubes" six inches long, filled with three substances "saturated with my vital nervous fluid," which Consonni compares to "a Leyden jar" — a reservoir of magnetic fluid capable of making "the invasion of the nerve-cerebral system instantaneous and most intense." It is precisely on this point that Consonni marks the difference with Lafontaine: the Franco-Swiss master operated by contact, while Consonni declares that he had employed, before the tubes, "a time greater by well six or eight times" with traditional contact methods.
In the sessions, described in the following pages, the program included: instantaneous sleep induction at a distance; catalepsy and total insensitivity to pain (bystanders could "prick and burn the cheeks and orbits" of the subjects without reaction); guided movement of the subjects "by my secret voice and power"; and — with the piano accompaniment of Maestro Sborgi — the ecstatic poses of the three young female subjects, whom the public called "the three Graces." The final part, dedicated to clairvoyance, is the same that at the Academy of September 14, 1850 "there was no time to perform."
Significance for the ISI-CNV Tradition
Consonni's testimony completes the historical map of the Paret Method on a previously obscure point:
| Documented Fact | Source (Consonni) | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Lafontaine physically active in Florence (1850) | Sborgi attestation | Documents the Italian diffusion of the method |
| Lafontaine Method publicly applied to medico-scientific societies | Sworn attestation Sept. 14, 1850 | Institutional recognition of the method |
| Eyewitness of both magnetizers | Declaration of G. Sborgi | Direct proof of the method relationship |
| Consonni innovates compared to Lafontaine (the "tubes") | Chapter on tubes/Leyden jar | Technical evolution of the Italian chain |
The chain becomes: Mesmer → du Potet (1820) → Lafontaine (1840) → Consonni (Italian route, 1849–1851) → Donato (1875–1900).
Primary Sources
OCR text for instant verification of citations: Consonni — Lafontaine extracts OCR (archive OCR_FONTI_WIKI).
Verification dossier: every historical statement on this page is traced back to a textual passage in the primary source extracts dossier on Drive (section SOURCE C — Consonni, extracts C1–C7: anti-hallucination system, every claim verifiable against the original source).
Digitized source in the ISI-CNV Drive folder:
- Taddeo de' Consonni, La esistenza e spiritualità dell'anima distinta dallo spirito sensitivo... mediante una trentina di pubbliche gratuite accademie (c. 1850–1851, 406 pp.; Library of Congress copy) — PDF Drive
Related sources (Lafontaine folder):
- Charles Lafontaine, L'Art de Magnétiser ou le Magnétisme Animal (Paris, 1847; ed. cited by Consonni p. 344) — PDF Drive
- Charles Lafontaine, Mémoires d'un magnétiseur, vol. I — PDF Drive
- Charles Lafontaine, Mémoires d'un magnétiseur, vol. II — PDF Drive
Philological note: the citations on this page derive from the text layer of the PDF; a high-resolution OCR (tesseract-ita) is in progress and transcriptions will be refined philologically in a subsequent revision.
See also
- Charles Lafontaine — Il Magnetizzatore Franco-Svizzero
- Lafontaine in Inghilterra e Braid — La Tournée del 1841 e l'Origine dell'Ipnotismo
- Metodo Lafontaine nei Materiali ISI-CNV
- Baron du Potet — Il Maestro del Sonnambulismo Magnetico
- Donato — Il Padre della Fascinazione
- La Tradizione Europea dell'Ipnosi — da Mesmer a Paret