Los síntomas melancólicos del filósofo en las Intercenales (1424-1439) de Leon Battista Alberti

Resumen

This essay analyzes the presence of the modern concept of melancholy in the work Intercenales (1424-1439), by the humanist Leon Battista Alberti. This is a collection of satirical, allegorical and moralizing writings composed with the purpose of entertaining a close audience of friends. In spite of the fact that in this work such terms like "melancholia" don’t appear, we argue the melancholic character of a typical character: that of the philosopher "ill in the soul" (affected by the morbus animi), whose illness is evidenced through a series of physical and psychological symptoms associated with melancholy by the classical and medieval medical tradition. These are stomach pain, pallor, insomnia, a rich memory, propensity to study at night and ability to have premonitory dreams. With this characterization, Alberti promotes a connection, distinctive of the Renaissance, between being genius and a melancholic character. This is the basis of the modern concept of melancholy. It is concluded that the ultimate purpose of the Intercenales is to cure, from a literary and philosophical point of view, the illness of the melancholic philosopher.