The Healing Power of Erotic Dreams in the Age of Humanism
Keywords:
antiquity, Middle Ages, humanism, medical treatises, erotic dreams, physiological interpretation, mania, melancholyAbstract
The article explores the perception of erotic dreams in the works of fifteenth to seventeenth century humanists. Erotic dreams were undoubtedly a delicate theme, which humanists attempted to treat scientifically, to naturalize them, chiefly in medical works. The appearance of erotic dreams (most often dreams about sexual acts) was supposed to indicate the imbalance of humor in the human body. In other words, humanists argued that they not be signs of the devil’s work, tempting people to sin, but a symptom of a diagnosable and curable physiological process. Moreover, erotic dreams did not merely help in diagnosing the imbalance of humors but could also have healing power because they could restore the appropriate proportion of the bodily fluids. Through antique, medieval and fifteenth- to seventeenth-century medical treatises, the article outlines how erotic dreams were interpreted in history, connected as much to spirituality as to bodily and mental diseases – especially to melancholy – and to love frenzy.References
Aristotle. “De divinatione per somnum.” Parva naturalia. Ed. William David Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955. 462b–464b.
– – –. “De somniis.” Parva naturalia. Ed. William David Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955. 458b–462b.
– – –. “De somno et vigilia.” Parva naturalia. Ed. William David Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1955. 453b–458a.
Artemidorus. Oneirocritica. Ed. Daniel E. Harris-McCoy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Aubery, Jean. L’Antidote d’amour : avec un ample discours contenant la nature les causes d’iceluy, ensemble les remèdes les plus singuliers pour se préserver guérir des passions amoureuseis. Paris: Claude Chappelet, 1599.
Cassian. Cassien : institutions cénobitiques. Ed. Jean-Claude Guy. Paris: du Cerf, 1965.
Champier, Symphorien. Rosa gallica …: omnibus sanitatem affectantibus utilis & necessaria: quę in se continet pręcepta auctoritates atque sententias memoratu dignas, ex Hippocratis, Galeni, Erasistrati, Asclepiadis, Diascordis, Rasis, Haliabatis, Isaac, Avicennae, multorumque aliorum clarorum virorum libris in unum collectas: quae ad medicam artem rectamque vivendi formam plurimum conducunt: una cum sua pretiosa Margarita: de medici atque ęgri officio. [Paris:] Jodocus Badius, 1514.
Evagrius Ponticus. Évagre le Pontique : Traité pratique ou Le Moine. Ed. Antoine Guillaumont and Claire Guillaumont. Paris: du Cerf, 1971.
Ferrand, Jacques. De la maladie d’amour ou mélancolie érotique : discours curieux qui enseigne à cognoistre l’essence, les causes, les signes, & les remedes de ce mal fantastique. Paris: Denis Moreau, 1623.
Ficino, Marsilio. Platonic theology, Vol. 4. Tr. Michael J. B. Allen. Ed. James Hankins, William Bowen. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Galen. “De dignotione ex insomniis.” Claudii Galeni opera omnia, Vol. 6. Ed. Karl Gottlob Kühn. Leipzig: Knobloch, 1823. 832–835.
Gazius, Antonius. Corona florida medicinae sive de conservatione sanitatis. Venice: Johannes & Gregorius de Gregoriis, 1491 (GW 10563).
Hippocrates. “De semine, de natura pueri, de morbis IV.” Œuvres complètes d’Hippocrate, Vol. 7. Ed. Émile Littré. Paris: Baillière, 1851. 462–614.
Kyr, Paulus. Sanitatis studium ad imitationem aphorismorum compositum: item alimetorum uires breuiter et ordine alphabetico positae. Brașov: [Wagner,] 1551.
Leonus, Dominicus. Ars medendi humanos, particularesque morbos a capite, usque ad pedes. Quae ob faciliorem doctrinam in tres dividitur sectiones: quarum prima continet morbos membri animati. Secunda morbos membrorum spiritalium. Tertia morbos membrorum nutritioni, et generationi servientium. Bologna: Apud Io. Rossium, 1576.
Lucretius. Titi Lucreti Cari De Rerum Natura Libri Sex. Ed. Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Macrobius. Commento al sogno di Scipione. Ed. Moreno Neri. Milano: Bompiani, 2007.
Plato. Platonis Res Publica. Ed. John Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon, 1902.
Rodericus a Castro. De universa mulierum medicina novo et antehac a nemine tentato ordine opus absolutissimum. Cologne: Servatius Noethen, 1689.
S. Thomas de Aquino. “Summa Theologiae.” Opera omnia. Ed. Enrique Alarcón. Online at Corpus Thomisticum website.
