Soigner la mélancolie au Moyen Âge : conseils et remèdes tirés des romans arthuriens français des XIIe –XIIIe siècles
Treating Melancholy in the Middle Ages: Advice and Remedies Offered by 12th and 13th Century French Arthurian Romances

Summary/Abstract: The author analyses the selected 12th and 13th-century French Arthurian romances as an example of locus medicinalis, i.e., the meeting place of literature and the medical knowledge of the time, where literary fiction intersects with the medical reality, for which melancholy was one of the major challenges. Like medicine, literature takes up the challenge, by seeking to describe the symptoms of melancholy, to define its causes and above all to propose an effective treatment to relieve it. In the romances analyzed, the concept of melancholy is similar to that of acedia, the vice of the soul manifested by boredom, indifference, fatigue, and exhaustion of the heart. The condition was attributed to the activity of the demon of acedia, called daemon meridianus by Cassian and Evagrius of Pontus. In the Arthurian romances analyzed in the article, in which acts of psychological and spiritual nature are of main importance, the treatment of melancholy is based on the holistic Christian vision of man, according to which the state of mind, soul, and body influence each other. Cathartic tears, memory healing, friends’ support, the presence of the beloved, joy that chases away sadness, prayer, conversion, confession, and pilgrimage prove to be more efficient than theriac, electuary, or any medicine.

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