The article explores the perception of erotic dreams in the works of fifteenth to
seventeenth century humanists. Erotic dreams were undoubtedly a delicate theme,
which humanists attempted to treat scientifically, to naturalize them, chiefly
in medical works. The appearance of erotic dreams (most often dreams about
sexual acts) was supposed to indicate the imbalance of humor in the human
body. In other words, humanists argued that they not be signs of the devil’s work,
tempting people to sin, but a symptom of a diagnosable and curable physiological
process. Moreover, erotic dreams did not merely help in diagnosing the imbalance
of humors but could also have healing power because they could restore the
appropriate proportion of the bodily fluids. Through antique, medieval and
fifteenth- to seventeenth-century medical treatises, the article outlines how erotic
dreams were interpreted in history, connected as much to spirituality as to bodily
and mental diseases – especially to melancholy – and to love frenzy
