Folie médiévale (2020) Painting by Jyb Le Peintre

The literature of the Middle Ages largely testifies to the way in which medieval society treated the mentally ill: at the same time integrated and rejected, tormented and taken in pity, the madman was nevertheless given a real place. His outward appearance made him easily recognizable: yellow and green rags, a hood with bells, and in his hands a fad, a ridiculous scepter. The memory of this historical period is preserved thanks to the numerous illuminations and miniatures decorating the manuscript texts of the Middle Ages. Another illustration is the painting by Hieronymus Bosch “The extraction of the stone of madness” (end of the 15th century). At that time, the widespread idea was that madness was materialized by the presence in the brain of a foreign body that had to be eradicated. Charlatanism? However, some doctors already distinguished between delusions, manias, melancholy, with a few peculiarities: "The influence of the moon which struck lunatics". The divine had a great place in the universe of madness: St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) explained the progress of the disorders and exalted irrationalities induced by sin. Medieval wisdom made that the madman was not an outcast, an individual out of the ban. But the rules of conduct specific to the Middle Ages evolved over the centuries: what about our contemporary society where this universe is secular? Madness disturbs, looks turn away, flee. Yet it is a disease like any other, a pathology among a multitude of others, cancer, heart disease, ... Can we think with M. Foucault "From man to true man, the road passes through 'crazy man " ?

Related themes

Moyen ÂgeFolieMalades MentauxEnluminuresMiniatures