Malachias Geiger 1652 book on Melancholy
In 1652 a German phyisican published a most extraordinary book on melancholy. It went beyond medicine and aimed at gathering together all that was known in connection to this illness:
Malachia Geiger, Microcosmus hypochondriacus, sive de Melancholia Hypochondriaca Tractatus, Monachii, apud L. Straub, 1652. [a digital copy is available at the BIUM digital library]Hypochondria was considered to be an abdominal illness caused by an overabundance or plethora of black bile. This book gathers around the complex notion of melancholia a multitude of details about medicine, alchemy natural sciences, literature and mythology. It begins as a medicine book and evolves into a much more complex discourse. It represents the German couterpart to Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Dealing with Early Modern curiosities about medicine and history, not knowing yet for which language I shall settle (French or English), I have thus decided to use Microcosmus hypochondriacus as the title of my research blog. I'll be back with more details about this book.
