El Siglo de Oro de la comadre: testimonios de Inés de Ayala

Abstract

Past notions of health and medical care are only partly congruent with present ones. We tend to forget this when evaluating the bases on which people of the past built their values and priorities. Testimonies about the court midwife Inés de Ayala contain many elements that we would now label as purely cultural or religious. We will gather and connect data about this well-known figure at the court of Philip IV; we will propose some possible causes for Inés de Ayala's popularity and wealth; finally, we will try to inquire the sociological and psychological functions of religious practice which evolved around ritual gestures, magicalreligious objects and visions of the future granted to some women by through divine grace.