Morti masticatori di sudari come causa di peste. Pratiche, miti e riflessioni filosofico-naturali

In early modern Germanic countries people believed that plague was caused by the residual activity of corpses chewing their own shrouds in their tombs. These corpses, who were real protagonists of the imaginary, both popular and learned, of that time, were called schmatzende Tote or Nachzehrer. This article describes this belief, illustrating the philosophical-natural reflections, of Paracelsian ancestry, to which it was subjected during the eighteenth century.