The Problem XXX titled here "The Man of Genius and Melancholy" is a short text that originates from medical and philosophical literature, which explores the relationship between physiology and creativity.

We do not know exactly by whom and at what time it was conceived, but Seneca, Plutarch, and Cicero attribute it to Aristotle. And thus, it has been read and contemplated by doctors and philosophers from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.

It is in depressive temperaments and when man is far from the gods, prone to excesses, lust, and fleeting enthusiasms, that one finds all the personalities of genius. Are not all creators, in essence, melancholics?