Les phantasmata du mélancolique d’après Louis de Caseneuve (1626)

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.