SOURCE: Vicari, E. Patricia. “Applied Divinity: The Anatomy as Priestly Counsel.” In The View From Minerva's Tower: Learning and Imagination in ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy,’ pp. 121-48. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

In the excerpt below, Vicari argues that the The Anatomy of Melancholy is best understood not as a medical treatise, but as a sermon. Vicari links the style of the work to the oral tradition and notes Burton's progressive treatment of melancholy as not merely a malady but a sin.

I. the Question of Genre: the Agenda of ‘the Anatomy of Melancholy’

Three related questions about The Anatomy of Melancholy have been in the forefront of critical discussion of it: What kind of book is it? What is its purpose? Is there any principle of unity in it? Recognizing the genre of a book is fundamental to understanding it; the difficulty of doing so in this...