In his ‘Causes of Hypocondriacall or Windie Melancholy’, Burton cites one of the major sources of the Anatomy, Philipp Melanchthon's De Anima (1540; revised 1553), this time on the commonness of windy melancholy in men. It is easy to see the appeal of such a text – a work with a philosophical and medical slant, and written by the great Wittenberg reformer (and friend of Luther) – to a minister of a philosophical bent who is writing about a medical condition. Yet Melanchthon's book has a further interest for Burton. He notes that, ‘as Camerarius records in his life, Melancthon himselfe was much troubled with it, & therefore could speake out of experience’ (I, 379). Melanchthon is not only an authority for the content of Burton's work, but is also a sufferer of melancholy. As such, his personal knowledge of the disease makes his claims about it more trustworthy. In this chapter I will explore how Burton presents himself as ‘speak[ing] out of experience’, and particularly how this relates to his curative claim. Burton constructs an image of himself as melancholic partly in order to show that, like Melanchthon, he understands his subject-matter, but this self-presentation is also developed as a means of identifying with the reader's own case. While Burton the spiritual physician observes and diagnoses the disease, Burton the melancholic offers the benefits of his own experience. The combination of these roles provides a unique approach to textual cure.