Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: In Louis de Caseneuve’s Melancholicus aeger emblem, we find a strange imaginary iconographic universe which, through the original associations proposed by the author, was to facilitate the memorization of the most frequent phantasmata in patients with melancholy. In the article, I analyze the engraving of this emblem as well as the Latin commentary that accompanies it. I distinguish five categories: melancholic bestiary, fragility, infirmity, gloomy and prophetic ideas, extravagance ‒the disorders of the senses and of the imagination evoked by the Caseneuvian iconography which, in a representative way, illustrate the pathologies from which melancholics may suffer. I also demonstrate the importance of the mnemonic method present in this medical collection created for didactic purposes, as well as attempt to identify the ancient sources that probably inspired Caseneuve.
Source: Studia Litteraria
Author: Magdalena Koźluk
Institution: University of Łódź
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4292184703