Mad Princes of Renaissance Germany

With Michel Foucault's Madness and Civilization in 1961, the study of madness became an ever more popular lens through which to view societal norms. In his short but well-researched and entertaining book, Midelfort, a professor of history at the University of Virginia, focuses on princes because they are better documented than other folk; Germany because it had many princes; and the Renaissance because new, more centralized governments were increasingly dependent on the person of the hereditary ruler for legitimacy. At the beginning of the 16th century, a mad prince like Landgrave Wilhelm I of Hesse might simply be locked away in a castle with little or no treatment. But by the mid-16th century, treatment was becoming common--not that it seemed likely to help. Most medical practitioners treated madness by trying to balance the proportion of black bile associated with melancholy. The initial protocol was fairly benign--sleep, fresh air, sunlight, exercise, cheerful servants--but thereafter livelier measures could include applying the entrails of a freshly killed snow-white dog to the head or administering a drink of powdered pearls. Reluctantly, a follower of Paracelsus (1493-1541) might be allowed to try his hand with various chemicals, or, very rarely, an exorcist called in. In anecdote and analysis, Midelfort cunningly cooks up a heady brew of medicine, religion, psychiatry, power, sex and pathos. Illustrations. (May)