In the Middle Ages, Romance and Disease Were Often Intertwined

In the Middle Ages, love was defined in different ways. From a religious point of view, in biblical texts and edifying literature, it was synonymous with voluntasthat is to say of dedication to the other.

[Article issu de The Conversation, écrit par Anna Peirats, IVEMIR-UCV, Universidad Católica de Valencia]

But love was also synonymous with passion orErosconsequence of the idealization of the loved person.

A manual on love in the 13th century

The link between love and passion is already in Amore D'Andreas Capellanus. This scientific and practical treaty of the XII^e century, which describes the rules to follow in romantic relationships, defines love as an innate passion, which is born from the contemplation of beauty and an obsession with the loved one.

Capellanus lists different types of love: true love, between people of the same social rank; vulgar, or carnal love; Impossible love; And dishonest love (which the author condemns because it is contrary to moral precepts).

This work had a major influence on medieval literature, medicine and society. The idea that love is a disease, based on the theory of the four bodily moods – blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile – whose balance assured health, also comes from there.

The vision of doctors

In his translation of a treatise on melancholy, the doctor Constantine the African establishes a direct link between the excess of black bile and the illness of love. This excess explained the link between the words “love” and “bitter”. According to him, the disease hit the brain and could cause intense thoughts and worries in the lover. In the same vein, the thesis of Boissier de Sauvages combines the evil of love with melancholy.

According to the Lilium Medicinae From Bernardo de Gordonio, this pathology, caused by “the love of women”, could lead to the death of the patient. It was understood that the man was obsessed with the images of his beloved. Under these conditions, body temperature, blood flow and sexual desire increased. In his manual, Gordonio analyzes symptoms, including the yellowish color of the skin, insomnia, lack of appetite, constant sadness due to the absence of the loved one, etc. This state was considered a disease, called Amor hereos Or Aegritudo Amoris.

Arnaud de Villeneuve, medieval doctor, attributed this disorder to an erroneous judgment of “cogitative memory”, located in the brain. This resulted in an elevation of the temperature, caused by the anticipation of sexual pleasure in the cerebral level.

According to the Dragmaticon philosophiae From Guillem de Conches (then, later, for Gordonius), the brain was divided into three parts. The first, located in the upper part of the front, had sensitive virtue. The second, behind the front, contained the sensitive consciousness, where the patient described the images of positive or negative. In the third, under the lower part of the neck, was the sensitive memory, a sort of archiving of images. The man who idealized the image of the beloved saw his altered imaginative function.

The evil of love in literature

Love as a disease is a constant in the literary texts of the time. Lucrèce devotes Book IV of Natura rerum On the theme of love, considering it a disease dangerous for the mental balance of the human being. For Garcilaso de la Vega, this state can lead to madness and death. In his sonnet XIV, he explains how his love passion led him to despair, where he does not find peace or rest.

We also note that the disease afflicts well -known literary characters. THE Book of good love From the archpriest of Hita shows the struggle between the Christian Spirit and the love of God, on one side, and “mad love” which eats away the lover, on the other. In El Corbacho From the archpriest of Talavera, “crazy love” is described as the direct cause of mental alienation and even death.

Leriano, the hero of Love prison From Diego de San Pedro, also suffers from “love evil”, a deep passion for Laureola who makes him lose appetite and sleep, and lacks it.

In CélestineCalixte manifests a disproportionate sexual desire which leads him to love madness. Without forgetting that the final objective of the Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is to publicize the extent of his passion to his beloved, Dulcinée.

In White pulling From Joanot Martorell, the attraction of the protagonist for Carmésine causes a lack of appetite, insomnia attacks, crying and sighs. Likewise, in Espill From Jaume Roig, the wise Solomon diagnoses in the dreams of the protagonist a love illness to a disproportionate love passion.

Was there a remedy for love evil?

Healing went through a double recommendation: diet and moral discipline. The prescriptive diet consisted in avoiding wine, red meat, milk, eggs, vegetables and red -colored foods, which encourage the movement of blood and sexual desire. The love patient had to eat white meat, fish and drink water or vinegar. It was also necessary to sweat well and take a bath before eating.

It was also advisable to dominate its carnal impulses in order to submit the will, by placing a cold iron plate on the kidneys (supposed cradle of desire), sleeping on a pillow filled with nettles, by bathing in cold water, etc.

Carnal instincts were the main cause of all these ills. A virtuous life, far from excessive passion, made it possible to find harmony between body and soul, because the evil of love could lead to death and, even worse, to the damnation of the soul.