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The Plague, Melancholy and the Devil
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Extract
The advent of science brought about a radical division between the means of expression it made possible and the one it disavowed: in the centuries preceding its establishment such a break was not possible, even though it was often desired.
Medical treatises of the Renaissance that analyze the plague and melancholy used categories that were not different from those used by theologians (and sometimes doctors) as far as their reference to the Devil was concerned. Since it is no less a question of the imagination in one case than in the other, we can try to associate these three “objects”-three figures of misfortune-and treat them as though they belonged to the same level of expression. Such a decision is not at all arbitrary; it proceeds, completely a posteriori, from the observation of a noticeable proximity between them, aside from their diversity: it is as though they offered variations on a certain number of themes, variations requested by a logic of the imaginary that we shall try to elucidate here by showing the several categories that serve as a point of departure for the functioning of that logic.
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References
1 See J. Céard, "Folie et Démonologie au XVIe," in Folie et Déraison à la Renaissance, Brussels, 1976. The author devotes several quite suggestive pages to the proximity by color of melancholy and Satan.
2 J.B. Montanus, Methodus ΘEPAΠEϒTIKH ex sententia Galent et Ioannis Baptistae Montani…, scripta a Ionne cratone de Crafftheim, in Crato von Kraff theim, Ad artem medicam isagoge, Venice, 1560, p. 85. Cf. also G.B. Della Porta, De refractione optices parte Libri Novem, Naples, 1593, Vol. IX, Proposition 3.
3 J. Guibelet, Trois discours philosophiques…, Evreux, 1603, p. 226. Bachelard quotes (in La terre et les rêveries de la volonté, Paris, 1948, p. 75) this fine image from Virginia Woolf: "The earth slowly drinks color as a sponge absorbs water." We find here the same idea of concentration, which produces the color black.
4 O. Brunfels, Onomasticon medicinae, Argentorati, 1534, not paginated, under the word "ater." Cf. also G. Peucer, Les devins ou Commentaires des principales sortes de divinations, Antwerp, 1584, p. 434; M.-T. Melanelius, De Melancbolia, sive atrae bilis Morbo, Antwerp, 1540, not paginated: "Nam urentibus carbonibus ei quid simile accidit, qui durante flamma pellucidissime candent, ea extincta, prorsum nigrescunt."
We must keep in mind that it is a matter of charcoal here, from wood, and not coal. Medieval tradition distinguished three acceptations of fire: lux, flamma and carbo. Cf. for example Barthélemy de Glanville, De proprietatibus rerum (1250), 1601: "Carbo est ignis actualiter incorporatus terrestri materiae et unitus, unde ignis par sui incorporationem partibus grossioribus terrestribus admixtus, per quadam violentiam interius detinetur," 10.6, p. 478. Carbo is therefore a terrestrial form of fire that implies the color black. We are grateful to Michel Lemoine for having suggested this reference to us, as well as some others from medieval authors.
5 G. Peucer, op. cit., in note 4, p. 440. If the heat is "too intense, extraordinary, acrid and burning."
6 Ibid., p. 436. "Heat cannot penetrate it nor change it: then it is called black bile, black blood and melancholic humor."
7 H.-J. Pilet de la Ménardière, Traité de la mélancolie…, La Flèche, 1635, p. 92. J. Starobinski has very well described the nature of this residual product: "Pathological black bile is a residue of combustion, a sort of thick tar, that may catch fire in its turn. It is a humoral coal. What is not the toxic power, the destructive aggressivity of a substance capable of catching fire for a second com bustion!" Histoire du traitement de la mélancolie des origines à 1900, Basel, 1960, p. 28 (see also pp. 14 and 44).
8 Peucer, op. cit., p. 450.
9 This is also true of blood: "…mutaturque sanguis in slavam bilem, aut atram, aut succum alioqui crassiorem, nigrioremque," Melanelius, op. cit. in note 4.
10 H.C. Agrippa, La philosophie occulte ou La magie, French translation of 1727, Paris, 1973, Vol. I, Ch. LX
11 Marsilio Ficino, Trois livres de la vie, French translation, Paris, 1631, p. 4, Verso.
12 J. Guibelet, op. cit., p. 226 verso.
13 Melanelius, op. cit., "Hiisce carbonibus quid adsimile, in claro sanguinis colore frigiditas operatur." This notation is as old as the theory of melancholy, since it is found in Aristotle's Problem XXX, I and in Rufus of Ephesus. Cf. on this subject R. Klibansky, E. Panofsky and F. Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy, Cambridge, 1964, pp. 31 and 52.
14 O. Brunfels, loc. cit.
15 Ibid.
16 H. Boguet, Discours exécrable des sorciers, Paris, 1602, p. 47. The author attributes the predilection of the Devil for this color to the fact that he is "the ruler of darkness and his kingdom is in the shadows." In fact, this is the traditional opinion.
17 Boguet, op. cit., p. 29.
18 Cremonini, De calido innato (No. 30), quoted by J. Roger, Les sciences de la vie dans la pensée française du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1971, p. 56: "Semen… has several qualities, thickness, viscosity, whiteness…, fecundity and most of all warmth and spirit."
19 All these particulars have been taken from the interrogatory of Magdeleine des Aymards, Riom, 1606, re-edited by R. Mandrou, Possession et sorcellerie au XVIIe siècle, Paris, 1979, pp. 21-31.
20 J. Aubert, Traité contenant les causes, la curation et préservation de la peste, Lausanne, 1571, p. 7.
21 Ibid., p. 19.
22 E Labadie, Traité de la peste, Toulouse, 1620, p. 28. See also A. Paré, Traité de la Peste, in Oeuvres complètes, Ed. J.-F. Malgaigne, Vol. III, Paris, 1841, p. 351.
23 J. Cardan, De Causis, signis, ac locis morborum, Basel, no date, p. 59: "… Et totum corpus nigricans."
24 A. Paré, op. cit. in note 22, p. 285.
25 J. Grévin, Deux livres des venins, Antwerp, 1568, p. 31; L. Vair, Trois livres des charmes…, Paris, 1583, p. 72 et seq.; Paré, op. cit., p. 350; Ficino, An tidote des maladies pestilentes, Cahors, 1505, p. 11, verso.
26 Paré, op. cit., p. 350.
27 P. Pigray, Epitome des préceptes de médecine et chirurgie, Paris, 1606, p. 528. Cf. also P. Pomponazzi, Les causes des merveilles de la nature ou les enchantements, Ed. H. Buisson, Paris, 1930, p. 141. On the callousness of the Devil's actions, see L. Vair, op. cit., in note 25, p. 77.
28 L. Vair, op. cit., p. 72; F. Valleriola, Traité de la peste, Lyon, 1566, p. 21: "This disease proceeds from the venomous corruption of the humors and spirits of the body infected by the attraction of corrupted or infected air because of bad vapors, having the property of altering the human body and spirit in strange and dangerous qualities."
29 Many examples exist of the comparison for their epidemic nature. Cf. J. Maldonat, Traité des Anges et des Démons, Paris, 1605, p. 158 verso; J. Bodin, La démonomanie des sorciers, Paris, 1580, p. 122.
30 G. Fracastoro, De contagione et contagiosis morbis et eorum curatione.
31 Ibid, p. 7.
32 F. Franco, Libro de enfermedades contagiosas, y de la preservación dellas, Seville, 1569, folio III.
33 Vair, op. cit., p. 76, Cf. also p. 419: "Sometimes in an entire family there were very few who exercized this damnable profession of witchcraft, and very often another family would inherit it; and even at times the entire population of a town was sullied by this pestilential crime, the contagion of which being afterward diffused and spread through the malicious astuteness of the Demons, it began to overcome everybody."
34 N. Remy, Demonolatriae libri tres, Lyon, 1595, p. 94, quoted by E. Delcambre in Le concept de la sorcellerie dans le duché de Lorraine au XVI et au XVII siècle, Nancy, 1948, Vol. I, p. 43.
35 Histoire prodigieuse d'un gentilhomme auquel le Diable s'est apparu, et avec lequel il a conversé, sous le corps d'une femme morte (1613), in Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Recueil de Dissertations anciennes et nouvelles sur les apparitions, les visions et les songes, Avignon, 1751, Vol. I, Part. II, p. 78.
36 P. de Lancre, L'incrédulité et mescréance du sortilège plainement convain cue…, Paris, 1622, p. 73. On this theme, see also M. de Certeau, La possession de Loudun, Paris, 1970, pp. 49-53.
37 N. de Nancel, Discours très ample de la peste, Paris, 1581, p. 69.
38 Labadie, op. cit., p. 18.
39 Peucer, op. cit., p. 435, where it is compared to wild plums, unripe apples and pears, partly sour. Cf. also Melanelius, op. cit., ibid.
40 Peucer, op. cit., p. 452. Cf. also Klibansky, Panofsky, Saxl, op. cit. in note 13 p. 53.
41 Lettre d'un médecin anonyme à M. Philibert de la Marre, conseiller au Parlement de Dijon (1647), in Mandrou, op. cit. in note 19, p. 203 et seq.
42 Ibid., p. 206.
43 Plato, Timaeus, 72c. The same thesis is found in J. Fernel, La méthode générale de guérir les fièvres, Paris, 1655, p. 10.
44 J. Ravelly, Traité de la maladie de la Rage, Metz, 1696, p. 24; 17, 20.
45 Ibid., p. 46.
46 Ficino, Antidote des maladies pestilentes, p. 12.
47 Ficino, Théologie platonicienne de l'immortalité de l'âme, Vol. II, Paris, 1967, p. 234.
48 Op. cit., p. 103.
49 Ibid., p. 147. Cf. also F. Valleriola, Traité de la peste, Lyon, 1566, p. 21; Paré, op. cit., p. 361: "Thus melancholy and other humors, being intermingled and perturbed, infect the blood and dispose it to decay and venomousness from which the plague is often generated, as well as other putrefactions."
50 J. Wier, Cinq livres de l'imposture et tromperie des diables, Paris, 1570, p. 150. Cf. also Starobinski, op. cit. in note 7, p. 40; de Certeau, op. cit. in note, 36, p. 202.
51 Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Cru et le Cuit, Paris, 1964, p. 299.
52 Quoted by Céard, op. cit., p. 132.
53 Aubert, op. cit., p. 9. As far as the meaning of colors is concerned, we note this example of the values given to white and red: "The color white, red…signi fies a man who is extremely good-natured and friendly, but courageous and brave in any warlike activity"; J. Belot, Familières instructions pour apprendre les sciences de Chiromance et Physionomonie, Paris, 1624, p. 344.
54 M. Schneider, Le Féminin expurgé. De l'exorcisme à la psychanalyse, Paris, 1979, p. 71. Recalling that at Loudun possession began just after the departure of the plague, the author very aptly writes: "In fact, it is after having suffered the terror of the plague, a figuration of death leading to formlessness and disin tegration…that the need was felt to give a form to this faceless evil. Compared to the anonymous burials proper to the plague, the Devil appeared, to a certain degree, as reassuring."
55 Peucer, op. cit., p. 433.
56 Ibid., p. 435.
57 M. Marescot, Discours véritable sur le fait de Martbe Brossier, de Ro morantin, prétendue démoniaque, Paris, 1599, p. 25.
58 Belot, op. cit., in note 53, p. 343.
59 L. Lemnius, Les secrets miracles de nature, Lyon, 1566, p. 252. Cf. also Fi cino, Les trois livres de la vie, Vol. I, p. 5.
60 Ibid.
61 H. Institoris and J. Sprenger, Le Martheau des sorcières, French translation A. Danet, Paris, 1973, p. 338.
62 Ronsard, Hymne des Daimons, critical edition, A.-M. Schmidt, Paris, 1939, verses 151-152.
63 J. Primerose, De Mulierum morbis et symptomatis libri quinque, Rotterdam, 1655, p. 198.
64 Wier, op. cit., p. 128 et seq.
65 Brunfels, op. cit., see under word "ater."
66 Pigray, op. cit., p. 325.
67 P. Crespet, Deux livres de la bayne de Satan et malins esprits contre l'homme et de l'homme contre eux…, Paris, 1590, p. 23 verso.
68 Boguet, op. cit., pp. 18-19.
69 A. de Montalembert, Histoire merveilleuse de soeur Alice de Thésieux, religieuse de Saint-Pierre de Lyon…, Paris, 1580, not paginated.
70 The image occurs frequently. For example, it is found in Pico della Miran dola, De Imaginatione, Latin text and English translation by H. Caplan, New Haven, Conn., 1930, p. 51; Wier, op. cit., p. 131 verso; Vair, op. cit., p. 138.
71 T. Bright, A Treatise of Melancholy containing the cause thereof, and reason of the strange effects it worketh in our minds and bodies… London, 1613, p. 122. All of this strictly conforms to the Galenic tradition: cf. Starobinski, op. cit., p. 26. We also find in a curious text an example in which melancholic delirium, instead of being black, transforms black into white: "If they [me lancholics] see a coated throat, whitened and rough, a breast that is spotted like a leopard, goats' teats in the middle of which appear two large, livid, lead-co lored buttons, they will imagine that it is a snowy throat, a flow of milk, a breast full of carnations, two little alabaster apples…in the middle of which shine two pale flesh-colored buttons." J. Ferrand, De la maladie d'amour, Paris, 1623, p. 28.
72 Belot, op. cit., p. 344.
73 Wier, op. cit., p. 131. Here again the liaison between Satan and melancholy is an old story: we find it certiified in the exhortations of St. John Chrysostom to the monk Stagirius (380 or 381). Cf. on this point Klibansky, Panofsky and Saxl, op. cit., p. 77.
74 See the article by Y. Conry, "Thomas Willis ou le premier discours rationa liste en pathologie mentale," Revue d'Histoire de Sciences, Vol. XXI, No. 3, July, 1978.
75 T. Willis, De Anima Brutorum, English translation by S. Pordage, London, 1683, Ch. XI, pp. 188-189.
76 P. Le Loyer, Quatre livres des spectres ou apparitions et visions d'esprits, anges et démons…, Angers, 1586, p. 505; Vair, op. cit., p. 322.
77 B. Castelli, Lexicon Medicum, Basel, 1628, p. 217; Beauvois de Chauvin court, Discours de la lycantbropie ou de la transmutation des hommes en loups, Paris, 1599, p. 21; J. De Nynauld, De la Lycanthropie, transformation et extase des sorciers, Paris, 1615, p. 64.
78 J. Bodin, La démonomanie des sorciers, pp. 101-102.
79 P. de Lancre, op. cit., p. 39.
80 Ronsard, op. cit., verses 77-79.
81 Institoris and Sprenger, op. cit., p. 338.
82 Valleriola, op. cit., p. 27.
83 Ficino, Antidote des maladies pestilentes, p. 13.
84 Aubert, op. cit., p. 42.
85 We must point out, however, that this therapy for the circulation of air is necessary but insufficient.
86 However, its presence is justified in Problem XXX, I, with the argument of the variety of forms this malady assumes. Wine, which has no less variable effect according to the subject, has an "aerial" nature, thus there must be air in melancholy. We note that if there is something aerial in melancholy, it is to explain the circulation of forms.
87 A. du Laurens, Discours de la conservation de la veue…, Paris, 1597, quoted by Starobinski, op. cit., p. 40.
88 Fire is so pure that La Ménerdière hesitates to call melancholy a "liquid fire" (because of its excessive heat): "…if the most noble operation of an ele ment that is so pure could accommodate itself to such a dangerous humor," Traité de la Melancolie, p. 22.
89 Aubert, op. cit., p. 7: "Fire alone, which for its great subtlety, violent heat and aridity naturally is incorruptible."
90 Labadie, op. cit., p. 50.
91 Aubert, op. cit., p. 43.
92 There is nothing here that is not traditional. That fire is at the same time a purifier and a destroyer is attested to in the Bible and in the writings of the Church Fathers. St. Basil even thought that the two properties of fire—to give light and to destroy—will be separated at the Last Judgment: light for the just, burning for the impious. (Homelies sur l'Hexaemeron, 6, 3, Patr. Grec., 29, 121d). A similar doctrine is found in the Middle Afes. cf. T. de Cantimpré, Liber de natura rerum (1240), ed. H. Bose, Berlin-New York, 1973, p. 412.
93 Paré, Des venins, p. 285.
94 Vair, op. cit., p. 77. For a comparison between the plague and fire, see N. de Nancel, op. cit., p. 3.
95 Stobée, Eclogarum physicarum et ethicarum libri duo, I, 25, 3, translated by J. Brun in Les Stoïciens, texte choisis, Paris, 1968, p. 51.
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