Libro de la Melancholía by Andrés Velázquez (1585). Part 1. The Intellectual Origins of the Book

Abstract

Part 1 of this paper examines views on melancholy from the Hellenic era (especially Hippocrates), the Roman era (especially Galen), Arab physicians (Ishaq Ibn Imran, Rhazes and Avicenna) and the views of physicians from the Renaissance period. The medical orthodoxy followed Galenic theory as late as the sixteenth century, regarding melancholy as a disease of the body.