Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach discusses Medieval Sex Lives
Professor Elizabeth Eva Leach, Exeter College Lecturer in Music and Fellow of the British Academy, has recently been featured in a podcast, interviewed, and written an article about her latest book, Medieval Sex Lives. Published in December 2023 by Cornell University Press, the book examines how medieval courtly songs shaped a ‘sexual script’ around practices of intimacy and desire.
Professor Leach argues that the ‘sexual script’ was a kind of pedagogy, or a way that medieval listeners learned about erotic intimacy and the social expectations that surrounded it. They were a way of presenting listeners with ‘fantasy pathways’ along which to explore their desires, suggesting, crucially, that minority sexual practices, including ‘queer sexualities and paraphilias of various kinds’ are not exclusive to the modern age, but that they were common in the distant past as well.
Professor Leach’s interlocutor on The Medieval Podcast, Danièle Cybulskie, draws another link between medieval and modern sex lives in ‘Sexy Medieval Songs’, which was recorded in February this year and was released just before Valentine’s day. Professor Leach explores how medieval lyrics shaped their listeners’ expectations around intimacy, and Cybulskie draws a link is between the contents of Bodleian Library MS Douce 308, which contains around 500 love lyrics, and romantic Spotify playlists.
Despite this humorous link, MS Douce 308 has a lasting historical significance, which Professor Leach explores in an interview for the New Books Podcast, hosted by Dave O’Brien, professor of Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Manchester. The conversation highlights how Professor Leach’s book uses contemporary theories to ‘re-examine the songs and lyrics in the manuscript’, which had often been dismissed by 19th- and 20th-century editors as ’poor attempts at humour’.
In addition to these audio features, Professor Leach has contributed an article to Psyche, a digital magazine discussing psychology, philosophy, and the arts. Professor Leach reflects on courtly love songs as cultural touchstones, noting their accessibility across Western Europe due to being written and circulated in French. They offered aristocratic listeners across the continent a shared set of expectations and fantasies about romantic and married life, even bridging the gap between women sent across Europe for arranged marriages and the men who received them. These songs, Professor Leach argues, were more than simple entertainment—they formed part of a broader cultural language that shaped social and emotional experiences.
By examining the cultural role of courtly love songs, Professor Leach reveals how medieval ideas about intimacy, desire, and social norms continue to resonate today. Her discussions with Cybulskie and O’Brien and her article in Psyche provide readers and listeners with fresh insights into medieval music, literature, and social history, shedding light on how the past can inform our understanding of intimacy and desire.
To listen to the podcasts or read her article, please visit the following links:
- The Medieval Podcast: Sexy Medieval Songs with Eliza–The Medieval Podcast – Apple Podcasts
- The New Books Network: Elizabeth Eva Leach, “Medieval Sex Lives: The Sounds of Courtly Intimacy on the Francophone Borders” (Cornell UP, 2023) – New Books Network
- Psyche: Courtly love songs are a window into medieval sex lives | Psyche Ideas
