The Role of the Senses in Medieval Liturgies, Rituals, and Devotional Practices
Edited by Zuleika Murat Edited by Valentina Baradel Edited by Sara Carreño
Hardback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9782503623412
7.01 x 10 inches
Price: $94.00
On back order
This book offers a new look at the multisensorial dimension of medieval rituals and devotional practices.
During the Middle Ages, rituals d shaped the daily life of the faithful, from the Divine Office and the Mass to individual devotional practices such as the reading of the Hours. They accompanied the lives of people from their birth to their last breath. These ceremonies aimed at engaging the devotees by stimulating their senses and triggering emotional and spiritual responses. This book aims to approach these practices from the lens of sensory studies, by giving the spotlight to the sensoria (i.e. the diverse sensory systems that existed in the Middle Ages) and the experiences of the faithful. In so doing, it aims to show that the experience of the sacred was not homogeneous and static. On the contrary, it was a multimodal and multisensorial activity, one that bore complex and overlapping layers of meaning, and was perceived in different ways by the diverse groups and individuals involved.
Zuleika Murat, Valentina Baradel, Sara Carreño, Introduction: Sensing the Sacred in the High and Late Middle Ages
Holly Flora, Meditation, Ritual, and the Senses in the Paris Meditationes Vitae Christi
Martina Bordone, Through Body or Eye: Experiencing Devotional Books in Late Medieval Italy
Vittorio Frighetto, Protect and Survive: The Pursuit of Salvation and the Role of the Body in Fifteenth-Century Flemish Prayer Books
Dr Leah R. Clark, Sensorial Practices and Transcultural Objects in the Collections of Eleonora d’Aragona, Duchess of Ferrara
Ariana Mae Sider, Materiality, Sensory Experience, and the Sacraments in Late Medieval Toursnais Wills
Francesc Massip and Alba Knijf, With the Five Senses: Spectacular Devices for Engaging the Audience in the Middle Ages
Carla M. Bino, Moving Movements: Animated Crucifixes and the Faithful in Fourteenth-Century Central Italy
Sara Carreño, Space, Movement, and the Senses: Religious Plays at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in the Fifteenth Century
Valentina Baradel, Sensing the Miracle, Experiencing the Resurrection: Embodied Devotional Practices at the Shrine of St Lazarus, Autun
David Merlin, Sounding Liturgy: The Aural Dimension of Medieval Worship
Frederick S. Paxton, Engaging the Senses in the Death Ritual at Cluny
Florence Chave‑Mahir, Exorcism in the Middle Ages: A Performance for All Senses
Ninon Dubourg, The ‘Blind’, the ‘Deaf’, and the ‘Dumb’: Liturgical Practice and Sensory Impairment in the Late Middle Ages
Marta Simões and Joana Antunes, Fasting the Senses: Lent and Holy Week in Portuguese Medieval Churches
Zuleika Murat, Embodied Piety: Sensory Education and Childhood Devotion in Medieval Europe
Hólmfríður Sveinsdóttir, Sensory Affordances of Objects: Amulets and the Medieval Sensorium
Serena Franzon, Praying with the Senses: Sensory Engagement in Relation to Medieval Devotional Jewellery
Micol Long, An Intimate Touch: The Religious Significance of Combs Beyond Liturgical Use (tenth–fifteenth c.)
Katalin Suba, The Crucifixion Scene on the Hungarian Coronation Mantle and Its Liturgical Allusions
Elliott Wise, Epiphanies of Flesh and Light: Framing the Elevation of the Eucharist with the Chasuble of the Golden Fleece
Index
Valentina Baradel is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Padua;
Sara Carreño is assistant professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela;
Zuleika Murat is associate professor at the University of Padua.
- Edited by Zuleika Murat
- Edited by Valentina Baradel
- Edited by Sara Carreño
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