Abstract:
In the late thirteenth century, unknown authors in the Catalan-Provençal region composed
The Book of Women’s Love: Sefer ‘ahavat nashim ס רפ אהב ת נ י ש)ם ), a medical compendium that sought
to provide solutions to matters of women’s health and love through magic and recipes based on
natural philosophy. The Book of Women’s Love was placed in a larger codex entitled Book of Practical
Kabbalah סרפ קבלה מעש י)ת ) in the fifteenth century. The presence of Women’s Love in Practical
Kabbalah suggests that the recipes therein were viewed as ‘Practical Kabbalah’, the practical
application of the esoteric discipline Kabbalah. The Book of Women’s Love has not been examined
within a kabbalistic framework despite its placement in the Book of Practical Kabbalah. This thesis
demonstrates the impact of Kabbalah through a close study of the magic recipes in The Book of
Women’s Love. Magic recipes are utilised for analysis and are evaluated through three thematic lenses
central to Kabbalah: Hebrew, secrecy, and purity. Each thematic lens provides an explicitly kabbalistic
perspective on The Book of Women’s Love as concepts of gender resistance evident throughout. What
emerges is a new perspective on The Book of Women’s Love, in which Kabbalah does indeed have
influence.