Dissertation Research: Madness in Late Renaissance Italy

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PROJECT SUMMARYThe Renaissance marks a pivotal period in medicine and healing, with Italy leading the way in this innovation. For the mentally ill, this era witnessed the creation of some of the world's first mental asylums, many of which were in Italy. Because mental illness had not yet become entrenched in any single frame of reference and no single group enjoyed a monopoly over its diagnosis and treatment, however, a study of Renaissance madness must triangulate on the concept from three disparate discourses: scientific and medical,religious, and legal. My research, therefore, will compare evidence from the records ofthe Roman Inquisition and the episcopal courts in Venice and Rome to institutional recordsfrom some of Italy's first asylums. This will allow me to explore the classification,treatment, and rhetoric of madness within Italian popular culture during the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries in order to grasp not only how the mad were treated and categorized,but also how they were regarded within their own communities.Intellectual MeritsGiven that, as most historians agree, mental illness does not exist until a society hasagreed that it does by perceiving it, naming it, and responding it, madness can serve as awindow onto the changing values of late Renaissance society as a whole. A study of howand why society began increasingly to separate off individuals it deemed to besignificantly different will allow me to glean critical information about the ways inwhich early-modern culture defined and monitored its social and mental boundaries bylooking at those who stepped beyond them. Broader ImpactsResearching the historical moment of the creation of insane asylums can give us clues about the roots of some of our modern assumptions about sanity and reason. . By examining how societies define and separate off certain people, the project will interest scholars in anthropology, sociology, and the social sciences generally. By examining how and why certain people were defined as mad, the proposal raises important questions about the Renaissance as the beginning of modern rational, secular thought. By examining the roles of women and madness, the project will interest those who work in gender studies. More generally the project may interest those in disability studies.