Lippi Brandolini on King Mathias or on Deterioration of Health

Abstract

This forgotten text by a Renaissance humanist offers an intriguing testimony on the confrontation of the notion of health concerning medieval Christianity and the Renaissance. From the point of view of the Renaissance, the characteristic medieval Christian obsessions for slaving the self considered as barbaric, not suited anymore for the majesty of rulers who occupy themselves with their whole integrity toward the affairs of the state. Being overcome with illness, as alluded in the title of this case study text, became considered an evil subordination quite in opposition of the Christian point of view, by the time when Renaissance humanist Brandolini had written this dialogue in the court of the Hungarian king. Examining this text helps to understand the essential fragility of the notion of health, wholeness and its lost in religious and political context.