This article was published in Humanitas as well as at other online sites detailed below. The article concerns 'acedia' and 'tristitia', medieval versions of the modern problem of 'chronic ennui' (a condition also known as 'the spleen', 'saturnine melancholy', 'depression', 'the English malady', 'alienation' and 'anomie').

This piece belongs to Historical, Psychological, Sociological and Political Writings, Vol. 4 of The Collected Works of Ian Irvine (Hobson). (Nonfiction)

Go to: 'Medieval Acedia, Tristitia, Sloth: Early Christian Forerunners to postmodern ennui'. Copyright Ian Irvine (Ian Hobson) 1998. This article originally appeared as part of the non-fiction book 'The Angel of Luxury and Sadness: The Emergence of the Normative Ennui Cycle', published by Booksurge, 2001, by Ian Irvine, all rights reserved. [Available from Amazon.com]

Other versions/ publications have appeared online since publication: Humanitas version, Sloth, ennui and Tristitia ; Paleopsych (US) and Questia.

The essay (as well as other work by Irvine concerning ennui in history) has also been cited in a number of academic texts and books - e.g. Lesely Keney's excellent PhD thesis entitled Boredom Escapes Us: A Cultural Collage in 11 Storeys, p.67-76 (online PDF from the University of Toronto available) see also Emotions in History: Lost and Found by Ute Frevert (Central European Universaity Press, 2011); 'Acedia's Avatars in the Medieval World', by Ana Maria Machado (part of the series Uneasy Humanity: Perpetual Wrestling with Evil, Inter-Disciplinary Press, Oxford UK); Acedia: The Darkness Within (and the Darkness of Climate Change), by Dave MacQuarrie MD (Author House, 2012); Repetition and Identity: The Literary Agenda, by Catherine Pickstock (Oxford University Press, 2013); The Black Sun of Boredom: Henri Lefebvre and the Critique of Everyday Life by Patrick Gamsby (PhD Thesis, Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada 2012); A Phenomenological Study of Social Media: Boredom and Interest on Facebook, Reddit and 4chan, by Liam Mitchell (PhD thesis, University of Victoria, 2012)     - It has also been linked to from the Wikipedia entry on 'acedia' and from Enclopedia.com's entry on 'acedia'.

Image: Melancholia by Charpentier, 1901.