Mos Historicus: A Critical Review of European History

Isolation and the "epidemic" of melancholy in the Early Modern Europe: A cultural approach to melancholy

Απομόνωση και η «επιδημία» της μελαγχολίας στην πρώιμη νεότερη Ευρώπη (ελληνικά)
Published: Apr 23, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/mh.34278
Keywords:
early modern Europe melancholy isolation civil conversation gender studies
Maria-Konstantina (Maritina) G. Leontsini
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2584-8572
Abstract

This paper is looking at the ‘epidemic’ of melancholy in early modern Europe. The dialogue of Stefano Guazzo Civil Conversation (Venice 1574) is taken as a case study as well as its dissemination in Europe. More specifically, it investigates the problem of isolation as the cause of the malady of melancholy. Furthermore, it indicates that melancholy could be cured through friendship and conversation, especially that between men and women. Friendship was viewed as milestone for the well-being of one person but also for the society as a whole. The issue of company and conversation is being viewed within court and civil culture and the key to social equilibrium and the cure to melancholy.

Article Details
  • Section
  • Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Copyright Ownership:

Authors retain full copyright over their work published in Mos Historicus: A Critical Review of European History. By submitting to and publishing in the journal, authors grant Mos Historicus the exclusive right to first publication. All published works are made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0).

License Terms:

Under the CC BY-NC 4.0 third parties may copy, distribute, display, and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes only, provided that:

i. the original author and the original publication in Mos Historicus are properly credited,

ii. and any modifications, adaptations, or other changes to the original work are clearly indicated.

 

Downloads
Download data is not yet available.
References
Πρωτογενείς πηγές |Primary Sources:
Burton, Robert, (Democritus Junior), The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is, With all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several cures of it. In three partitions. With their several sections, members, and subsections, philosophically, medically, historically opened and cut up, Henry Cripps, Οξφόρδη 1628.
Guazzo, Stefano, La civil conversatione del Sig. Stefano Guazzo genti’huomo di Casale di Monferrato divisa in quattro libri, Altobello Salicato, Βενετία 1579.
Guazzo, Stefano, The Art of Conversation, J. Brett (εκδ.), Λονδίνο 1738.
Ficini, Marcilii, De Vitalibri Tres, recens iam a mendis fitus vindicati, Βασιλεία 1529.
Βιβλιογραφία |Secondary Literature:
Baron, Hans, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance. Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny, Princeton University Press, Πρίνστον και Νιου Τζέρσεϊ 1955.
Begali, Mattia, «Stefano Guazzo (1530-1593) », στο Gaetana Marrone, Paolo Puppa, Luca Somigli (επιμ.), Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies 1, A-J, Routledge, Νέα Υόρκη και Λονδίνο 2007, σ. 904-5.
Betz, Emily, «Melancholy: The Evolution of the English Malady, c.1550-1750», Trinity Postgraduate Review, Being Human and Transnationalism, 18:1(2019), σ. 1-18.
Brown, Alison, «Rethinking the Renaissance in the aftermath of Italy’s crisis»,στο John M. Najemy, (επιμ.), Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, Oxford University Press, Οξφόρδη 2004, σ. 246-265. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198700395.003.0013
Capp, Bernard, « ‘Jesus Wept’ But Did the Englishman? Masculinity and Emotion in Early Modern England», Past and Present, 224 (Αύγουστος 2014), σ. 75-108. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtu011
Dialeti, Androniki, «Defending Women, Negotiating Masculinity in Early Modern Italy», The Historical Journal, 54:1 (Μάρτιος 2011), σ. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X10000543
Dialeti, Androniki, «Gendering civic humanism. Political subjecthood and male hegemony in Renaissance Italy», στο Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers και Katerina Kitsi-Mitakou (επιμ.), Women and the Ideology of Political Exclusion. From Classical Antiquity to the Modern Era, Routledge, Λονδίνο και Νέα Υόρκη 2019, σ. 205-220. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315177113-13
Elias, Nobert, Η εξέλιξη του πολιτισμού, Ήθη και κοινωνική συμπεριφορά στη Νεότερη Ευρώπη, τόμ. Α’, Αλλαγές της συμπεριφοράς στα κοσμικά ανώτερα στρώματα της Δύσης, μτφρ. Έμη Βαϊκούση, Νεφέλη, Αθήνα 1997.
Gowland, Angus, «Burton's Anatomy and the Intellectual Traditions of Melancholy», Babel, 25(2012), σ. 221-257. https://doi.org/10.4000/babel.2078
Gowland, Angus, «The Problem of Early Modern Melancholy», Past & Present, 191 (Μάιος 2006), σ. 77-120. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtj012
Horodowich, Elizabeth, Language and Statecraft in Early Modern Venice, Cambridge University Press, Κέιμπριτζ 2008.
Miller, Peter N., «Friendship and Conversation in Seventeenth‐Century Venice», The Journal of Modern History, 73:1 (Μάρτιος 2001), σ. 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1086/319877
Najemy, John M.(επιμ.), «Introduction: Italy in the Renaissance», στο Najemy (επιμ.), Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, σ. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198700395.003.0001
Nicholson, Eric, « ‘She Speak Poniards’: Shakespearean Drama and the Italianate Leading Lady as Verbal Duelist», Early Modern Literary Studies, Special Issue: European Women in Early Modern Drama, 27 (2017), σ. 1-16.
Radden, Jennifer, «Learned People and Melancholy. Ficino», The Nature of Melancholy. From Aristotle to Kristeva, Oxford University Press, Οξφόρδη 2000.
Ragni, Cristiano, « ‘I have decreed not to sing in my cage’. Melancholy at Court from Castiglione to Shakespeares’ Much Ado About Anything», SigMa –Rivista di Letteratura comparate, Teatro e Arti dello Spetacolo, 5 (2021), σ. 395-411.
Richards, Jennifer, «Health and Intoxication, and Civil Conversation in Renaissance England», Past and Present, Supplement 9 (2014), σ. 168-186. https://doi.org/10.1093/pastj/gtt034
Richards, Jennifer, Rhetoric and Courtliness in Early Modern Literature, Cambridge University Press, Κέιμπριτζ 2003. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511483912
Shrank, Cathy, «Masters of civility. Castiglione’s Courtier, della Casa’s Galateo, and Guazzo’s Civil Conversation in early modern England», στο Michele Marrapodi, The Routledge Research Companion to Anglo-Italian Renaissance Literature and Culture, Routledge, Οξφόρδη 2019, σ. 144-159.
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E., Πρώιμη Νεότερη Ευρώπη 1450-1789, Ελένη Καλογιάννη (επιμ.), Αρετή Μπουκάλα (μτφρ.), Ξιφαράς, Αθήνα 2008.
Διαλέτη, Ανδρονίκη, «‘Θα μπορούσαμε, λοιπόν, να ονομάσουμε αληθινή τέχνη εκείνη που δεν φαίνεται ότι είναι τέχνη»;’ Επιτελέσεις του ανδρισμού στο Βιβλίο του Αυλικού του Μπαλτασάρε Καστιλιόνε (1528)», Τα Ιστορικά/Historica, 33, 64(Οκτώβριος 2016), σ.185-210.
Διαλέτη, Ανδρονίκη, Πλακωτός, Γιώργος, Πούπου, Άννα, Ιστορία της Βενετίας και της Βενετικής Αυτοκρατορίας 11ος-18ος αιώνας, Κάλλιπος, Αθήνα 2016.
Πελεγρίνης, Θεοδόσιος, Η Μελαγχολία της Αναγέννησης, Ελληνικά Γράμματα, Αθήνα 1995
Ηλεκτρονικές πηγές και βάσεις δεδομένων |Digital sources and databases:
Επιστολή Β’ ́Προς Κορινθίους,15:33, Ρητά 18:24 στο Bible Gateway, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015%3A33%2CProverbs%2018%3A24&version=NIV (πρόσβαση: 10.6.2022).
Nederman, Cary, «Civic Humanism», στο Edward N.Zalta (επιμ.),The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Άνοιξη2019), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2019/entries/humanism-civic/ (πρόσβαση: 2.02.2020).
Scott, Joseph Nicol, A New Universal Etymological English Dictionary, T. Osborne and J. Shipton, J. Hodges, R. Baldwin, W. Johnston, και J. Ward, Λονδίνο 1755, στο Lexicons of Early Modern English, https://leme.library.utoronto.ca/search/quick (πρόσβαση: 10.6.2022).