A Performance of Disease and Its Cures: Lovesickness in Medieval Iberia

In the context of late medieval Iberia, lovesickness as a real disease was both treatable and threatening to one’s lived experience. Different forms of lovesick cures, from both learned and vernacular healers, arose from the Galenic regime of the humoral body. Cures such as charms, mixtures, and verbal expressions helped heal lovesick patients, as is shown in the archive through sources like remedy books and literary texts depicting lovesick affliction. Much of the current scholarship on lovesickness focuses on medieval medicine through the archive. Through the lens of performance studies, I argue that medieval Iberians enacted cures on lovesick patients by crafting belief and efficacious therapy through sensorial knowledge and affect. Effective cures were performed through performative cures that demonstrated the use of affect, trust, and belief to encourage healthy bodies, minds, and spirits. Therefore, performing cures extended outside of traditional medicine and into avenues such as devotional music, which healed through divine methexic imagery.