Orginal illustration based upon historical examples.
 
Love potions have a long history from the classical world to the modern day, with strong literary associations, such as the Celtic chivalric romance Tristan and Isolde, which was revived in the 12th Century; to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their associations with witchcraft also appeared as evidence of the practice of black magic in Witch Trials across Europe from the 14th to the 17th Centuries. Historical evidence appears in the Witch Trials of Béatrice de Planissoles in 1320, to the 17th century Parisian Catherine Deshayes, also known in the Parisian underworld as ‘La Voisin’, who was burned at the stake in 1680.

The potions varied contents of blood, human and animal remains, alongside herbs that could prove fatal if used in the wrong doses, marked them out throughout history as powerful magic, alerting the inquisition, and witch hunters to eradicate the practice. Like other instances of folk magic, their practice continued in secret outlasting the inquisition. They are still however considered controversial to this day.