A strange plague known as “Saint Anthony’s fire”, killed hundreds of thousands for more than eight centuries from early Middle-Ages to the XIX century.  Recent studies show that it was caused by the same mushroom, which is the base of LSD, provoking hallucinations, both nightmarish and heavenly, to which paintings and stories bear witness.

For the first time, scientists and historians have teamed up together to retell this story, starting with a detail from a painting: a severed foot in the center of a famous triptych by Hieronymus Bosch.