M. O. Nobili, in this study puts forward a new thesis about Hamlet’s “melancholy”. According to scholars (Prof. Giorgio Melchiori and Paolo Bertinetti), a “source” of Hamlet’s “melancholy” is the Treatise of melancholie by Timothy Bright (1586). According to Nobili, a previous source may have influenced the Dramatist: Francesco Spiera’s tragic history (in Cittadella and Padua), as narrated and published by Pier Paolo Vergerio in 1551 in Poschiavo and whose vicissitude spread throughout Europe. Spiera, after having publicly abjured his evangelical faith, fell into a profound “melancholy” that led him to his death (1548). Vergerio, deeply impressed by this story (of which he had been the most important direct witness), avoided abjuring his faith and fled into exile, religionis causa, in Switzerland (1549); in Tübingen, Vergerio was superintendent of John Florio’s education from 9 May 1563 until his death (4 May 1565).

Francesco Spiera’s melancholy (371.14 kB)