This current study has its starting point in a concern for human impulses (emotions, passions) and the moral discourses constructed around these impulses in the world that we call ‘medieval’. I am interested, among other issues, in the moralization of what we now know as ‘sexuality’ and the extent to which this moralization was shared by medieval men and women. Of course, I am not the first to determine that the main focus of my interest is not to be found in medieval texts. That is, the concept of ‘sexuality’ is a modern one and does not have a medieval equivalent; there are no texts explaining what we call ‘sexuality’. In fact, our concept would have appeared strange from a medieval point of view. They had others which were similar, such as that of the ‘carnal deed’ or ‘coupling’ (obra or ajustament carnal). But it is evident that neither of these concepts coincides precisely with our own concept of ‘sexuality’, and they turn out to be much more complex than our concept. Obviously sexual life was a medieval interest and several aspects of what we know as ‘sexuality’ were treated in detail, and these have been studied by historians in recent years. The reconstruction of the ‘sexual’ in the medieval period demands an ongoing effort to distinguish between their concept of sexuality and ours, and the historian must avoid projecting our current concepts onto the realities of the past.

The current study is focused on the vice of lust, which occupies a prominent place in certain medieval discourses about the ‘carnal deed’.