Author Description

"An augmented edition of the famed interdisciplinary study on saturnine melancholy. Saturn and Melancholy remains an iconic text in art history, intellectual history, and the study of culture generally, despite being long out of print in English. Co-authored by Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl and rooted in the tradition established by Aby Warburg and the Warburg Library, this book has deeply influenced the understanding of the interrelations among humanities disciplines since its first publication in English in 1964. This study offers an unparalleled inquiry into the origin and development of the philosophical and medical theories on which the ancient conception of the Temperaments was based, and their connections to astrological concepts and religious ideas. Representations of melancholy are traced in literature and the arts up to the sixteenth century culminating in an illuminating analysis of Dürer's most famous engraving, Melencolia I. Following the success of Italian, French, and German versions of the work in intervening years, this new edition overseen by Philippe Despoix and Georges Leroux makes available for the first time in decades the original English published text. It is complemented by a new introduction and bibliographical amendments undertaken by Raymond Klibansky after the death of his co-authors, as well as supplemental translations of source material and extensive illustrations which inform the volume's landmark iconographic analysis. Completing this new edition is a new and thorough history of the complex publication history of this pathbreaking collective publication project of the Warburg Library--which almost never saw the light of day--covering more than 80 years, including the rich heritage of this work in the decades after its original publication."--