The Well-Tempered Career: Erasmus on the Emotional Health of Scholars

Abstract

This lecture explores Erasmus’ beliefs about the life of the healthy Christian humanist, from boy student to mature scholar, through the prism of ‘history of emotions’. It appraises Erasmus’ place in the longer history of scholarly hygiene, a tradition of writing about the physical, psychological, and spiritual health of scholars. What for example does Erasmus have to say about those conditions with which early modern intellectuals were so frequently associated, viz. melancholy and ‘hypochondriac’ disease? Does he pathologize particular kinds of intellectual activity, and what preventatives or remedies does he prescribe for the occupational hazards, if not diseases, of learning? Finally, what was Erasmus’ view of the authority of contemporary learned medicine in relation to these matters?