Anatomy of Melancholy

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Frontispiece of the 1652 edition

Anatomie der Melancholie ( English The Anatomy of Melancholy. What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostices & several cures of it. In three Partitions with their several Sections, members, and subsections. Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, opened and cut up ) is the main work of the English writer Robert Burton (1577-1640) and was first published in 1621 under the pseudonym Demokritus Junior .

History of origin

Robert Burton was an Anglican clergyman and lived as a scholar and librarian at Christ Church College , Oxford . His first literary attempts - occasional Latin poems and the comedy Philosophaster - were insignificant and unsuccessful. He knew melancholy ( depression ) from his own experience and wanted to use anatomy to "dispel grief by writing" and to help others out of compassion.

I'll change my state with any wretch,
You canst from gaol or dunghill fetch;
My pain's past cure, another hell,
I may not in this torment dwell!
Now desperate I hate my life,
Lend me a halter or a knife;
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so damn'd as melancholy.

My lot, I'll
swap that with every bastard, gibbet,
torture burns like hellfire,
I have to get out, have no choice,
life is hateful to me,
who lends a knife, holds the sword?
Other suffering - gold against the
cursed burden: melancholy.

Burton published his work under a pseudonym in order to secure "a little more freedom of speech". He chose the name after the Greek philosopher Democritus , with whom he does not compare himself and expressly does not assume any resemblance. Democritus had also devoted himself to the study of melancholy, and Burton saw himself as his stand-in to take up the philosopher's research and bring it to a conclusion.

The book was published in English in 1621, because Burton, as he himself says, would not have found a publisher for an originally planned Latin version. Revised and expanded editions followed in 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638 and 1651–52 ( posthumously ).

content

Anatomy of Melancholy is a compilation of historical, philosophical and psychological considerations on the subject of melancholy ( depression ) from two millennia. Burton spans the range from the psalms of the Bible to the Greek philosophers to the humanistic scholars; he quotes Roman poets and Christian theologians and compiles a comprehensive medical historical inventory from Hippocrates , Galenus and Avicenna to Hildesheim and Paracelsus . He makes a point of citing his sources and documents his statements meticulously; the annotation apparatus comprises more than 6800 footnotes, including the preface alone over 800.

However, Burton does not present any new findings; in the foreword he even ironically describes his book as a potpourri or compilation , a "rhapsody of rags piled up from all kinds of rubbish heaps, cobbled together, bizarre, useless".

The presentation is not chronological, but is based on systematic aspects and is divided into the following sections:

  • Demokritus Junior ad librum suum ( Demokritus Junior to his book , a Latin poem)
  • The Argument of the Frontispiece (an explanation of the Frontispiece in verse)
  • The Author's Abstract of Melancholy, Διαλογῶς ( Melancholy - abstract of the author , a poem)
  • Demokritus Junior to the Reader ( Demokritus Junior to the Reader , a satirical preface)
  • This is followed by the three main sections ( partitions ):
    • The first part deals with the types, causes and symptoms of melancholy,
    • the second book discusses ways to cure them,
    • the third section is devoted to melancholy in religion and love.

reception

  • "A book without example: Alexandrian and crazy, learned and mad, committed to scholasticism and, if you will, Jean Paul preluding." ( Walter Jens )
  • " Swan song of authoritarian scholasticism" (Holbrook Jackson)
  • "A bizarre work", "one of the most unusual and at the same time most successful books of the 17th century." ( Eugenio Garin )
  • “This dilettante [...] who everyone thought they knew had long since studied about his little creativity, wrote a masterpiece, [...] turned out to be a virtuoso narrator, quotation equilibrist and a natural talent in matters of psychology. "( Ulrich Horstmann )

literature

  • Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1st edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-02281-7 (abbreviated and translated by Ulrich Horstmann).
  • Democritus Junior: The Anatomy of Melancholy . Project Gutenberg Edition. Berlin 1855 (English, gutenberg.org [accessed on 23 August 2011]).
  • Eugenio Garin: The man of the Renaissance . Magnus Verlag, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-88400-803-X , p. 177 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 23 .
  2. ↑ Last verse of the introductory poem The Author's Abstract of Melancholy, Διαλογῶς . German by Ulrich Horstmann.
  3. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 31 .
  4. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 26-27 .
  5. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 27-28 .
  6. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 1 .
  7. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 342 .
  8. ↑ Eugenio Garin: The man of the Renaissance . 2004, p. 177 .
  9. ↑ Robert Burton: Anatomy of Melancholy . 1991, p. 334 .