Entre acédie et mélancolie, pistes «sardes» de réflexion

Science, for long time during the history unable to identify the origin of mental illness, has often had to yield to empirical and/or magical practices. The middle ages reflects the contrasting reactions aroused by mental disorders, inspired by various medical cultures : while the Christian world seems to forget the legacy of classical antiquity to favor one religious reading, Islam feeds on ancient authors to structure a real medical approach. Located in the center of the Mediterranean, Sardinia is at the heart of this dualism. An exploration of approaches to melancholy between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries helped to highlight some cases of mental disorders listed in the archival sources, but also elements that can help us to reconstruct the course of training physicians from Provencal, Catalan and Italian who practiced on the island. Wealth of documents consulted invites a reflection on the approaches to depressive illnesses in the island, torn between vision “religious” (acedia, sloth) and “scientific” (melancholy) of mental illnesses.