Sensual and Sensory Experiences in the Middle Ages: On Pleasure, Fear, Desire and Pain
Where was the line between pleasure and irritation in the sensory overload caused by the sounds, colours, and smells of a medieval market? How could pain and suffering be relieved by hoping for, and desiring to experience, an intimate, almost familiar, contact with Christ?
This volume shows the different aspects of sensory experiences that medieval people conveyed through documents, literary accounts, and religious practices. The unifying theme here is how pleasure, pain, desire, and fear appear in different—sometimes conflicting—combinations and settings: from the private space of the monastic cell to the shared hustle of the market. The geographic focus of this volume is Mediterranean Europe, although it also touches on other Western contexts. The combination of different points of view here provides an original contribution to the study of sensory experiences in the Middle Ages.
Carme Muntaner Alsina received a PhD in Medieval History from the University of Barcelona in 2013, and is currently an Associated Researcher of the Institut de Cultures Medievals, Spain. She has participated in several research projects, including competitive projects on Medieval records and heritage archives. Her research focuses on rural history and the edition of medieval and modern collection of documents and manuscripts.
David Carrillo-Rangel holds an MA in Medieval Cultures from the University of Barcelona, where he is currently undertaking PhD study on Birgitta of Sweden and the order she founded. His publications include “Textual Mirrors and Spiritual Reality: Exempla, mnemonic devices and performance in the Birgittine order” and “Tokens on Parchment and Fabric: Memory of the Dead in Prayer and Ritual in Vadstena Abbey”.
Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel holds an MA in Medieval Cultures from the University of Barcelona, where she is currently completing her PhD as an Associate Researcher at the Institute for Research on Medieval Cultures. She contributed to Women’s Networks of Spiritual Promotion in the Peninsular Kingdoms (2013) and co-edited Spaces of Knowledge: Four Dimensions of Medieval Thought (2014).
Pau Castell Granados holds a PhD in Medieval History and works as a Lecturer in the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Barcelona. He has been a visiting scholar and a Guest Lecturer at the Université de Lausanne, Switzerland, and the University of Oxford. His current research is devoted to medieval magic and the emergence of the witch-craze phenomenon in southern Europe.
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