HISTORY OF NEUROLOGY Medical and neuropsychiatric phenomena depicted in two Spanish medieval texts of Marian miracles Francisco de Assis Aquino Gondim 1,2 & Pamela Bastante 3 & Wilcar Cavalcante Gondim 4 & Joana Gurgel Holanda Filha 5 & Florian P. Thomas 6 Received: 29 July 2017 /Accepted: 1 November 2017 # Springer-Verlag Italia S.r.l., part of Springer Nature 2017 Abstract In the history of Christianity, veneration of the Virgin Mary reached its greatest intensity in the XIII century. Her perceived impact on daily life was tremendous and not surprisingly this extended to the spheres of disease and healing. The purpose of this study is to compare the medical and neuropsychiatric findings in two XIII century Spanish texts of Marian miracles, both examples of the popular Catholicism (vs. official catholic doctrine). We analyzed the medical and neuropsychiatric events in the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of St. Mary, CSM), composed at the court of Alfonso X and the Milagros de Nuestra Señora (The Miracles of Our Lady, MNS), written by Gonzalo de Berceo. Among the 25 miracles reported in the MNS, medically relevant facts were addressed in 19 miracles with a total of 23 recorded events (including resurrection or escape from death in five) and demonic possession in three (one with witchcraft/deicide). The most common medical subjects were ergotism, obstetric- gynecological, sudden death, intellectual disability/illiteracy, encephalopathy/alcohol intoxication, suicide (with self-muti- lation/castration), infanticide, infections, and absence of body decomposition after death. The 427 canticles in the CSM con- tain 270 medically relevant facts. Neuropsychiatric conditions were alluded to in 98 songs. Blindness and dystonia/weak- ness/deformities were the most common phenomena. Illuminations detailed many of the medical facts in the CSM, but not in the MNS. Medically relevant facts were de- scribed in both texts, but with more details in the CSM. Neurological conditions were more often described in the CSM, psychiatric conditions in the MNS. Keywords Cantigas de Santa Maria . Milagros de Nuestra Señora . Neuropsychiatric phenomena Introduction The history of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages is complex, characterized by multiple successive but overlap- ping, cultural, religious, and political influences. In 711, dur- ing the Visigothic rule [1], Muslim invaders established their rule in what was then called Al-Andalus [1]. A civilization of co-existing Christian, Muslim, and Jewish communities (BLa Convivencia^) ensued, in which science, medicine, poetry, art, and music thrived. Christian rule slowly returned from the XI to XV century [1]. As previously reported, the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Canticles of St. Mary, CSM), composed between 1252 and 1284 in Galician at the court of King Alfonso X El Sábio - the Wise (1221–1284), depict a wide range of medically relevant phenomena (about half its content) as well as other relevant political, historical, religious, and cultural topics [2]. * Francisco de Assis Aquino Gondim gondimfranc@gmail.com 1 Department of Internal Medicine, Neurology Division, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Rua Professor Costa Mendes, 1608, CEP: 60.430-140, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil 2 Centro Universitário Unichristus, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil 3 Department of Modern Languages, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE, Canada 4 Department of Women’ s Health and Pediatrics, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil 5 Department of Surgery, Ophthalmology Division, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil 6 Neuroscience Institute and Department of Neurology, Hackensack University Medical Center and Seton Hall-Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Hackensack, NJ, USA Neurol Sci https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-017-3183-3