In 1896 the novelist Emile Zola agreed to a year-long psychological study by the young French psychiatrist Edouard Toulouse, who examined his medical history, memory, vocabulary, handwriting and even his fingerprints. The idea behind it was that creative geniuses were touched by madness, a belief rooted in the 19th-century view that artists had highly strung nervous systems. Toulouse concluded that Zola was a neuropath with an unbalanced nervous system, and Zola welcomed the conclusion as confirmation of his sensitivity. Later research did not support the link. Havelock Ellis studied about 1,000 creative geniuses and found only 4 per cent had any mental illness, and Albert Rothenberg's 25-year study found no specific personality type linked to outstanding creativity. The myth persisted partly because Romantic thinkers valued imagination over reason.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.