ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an alternative approach for considering historical evidence of lesbian desire during the early modern period in Spain by asking what happens when we listen to women’s desire for other women over 400 years ago. What might the traces of sonic evidence from medical, legal, theological, and literary materials tell us about female erotic attraction for other women in the past? To what extent did listening to rumors impact the way neighbors, family, and officials heard women believed to love other women? In other words, what do we gain by tuning in to how people in the past were listening to, transcribing, and framing the way lesbians sounded? By listening to the archives, we come to realize that desire between women was not understood in terms of sex acts only but that early modern physicians, lawmakers, theologians, writers, neighbors, and family were busy listening to a broad range of audible evidence for women believed to enjoy the romantic company of other women.
