Touching, Devotional Practices, and Visionary Experience in the Late Middle Ages

This book addresses the history of the senses in relation to affective piety and its role in devotional practices in the late Middle Ages, focusing on the sense of touch. It argues that only by deeply analysing this specific context of perception can the full significance of sensory religious experience in the Late Middle Ages be understood. Considering the centrality of the body to medieval society and Christianity, this collection explores a range of devotional practices, mainly relating to the Passion of Christ, and features manuscripts, works of devotional literature, art, woodcuts and judicial records. It brings together a multidisciplinary group of scholars to offer a variety of methodological approaches, in order to understand how touch was encoded, evoked and purposefully used. The book further considers how touch was related to the medieval theory of perception, examining its relation to the inner and outer senses through the eyes of visionaries, mystics, theologians andconfessors, not only as praxis but from different theoretical points of view. While considered the most basic of spiritual experience, the chapters in this book highlight the all-pervasive presence of touch and the significance of ‘affective piety’ to Late Medieval Christians. Chapter 3: Drama, Performance and Touch in the Medieval Convent and Beyond is Open Access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com 

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 A Clash of Theories: Discussing Late Medieval Devotional Perception, Pablo Acosta-García.- Part I Unbinding the body.- Chapter 2 Touching the Page and Touching the Heart: Manuscript Culture and Affective Devotion in Late Medieval Flemish Communities, Barbara Zimbalist.- Chapter 3 Drama, Performance and Touch in the Medieval Convent and Beyond, Olivia Robinson and Elisabeth Dutton.- Part II Wounding the Spiritual Self.- Chapter 4 Sacralising Perception: Rosary-Devotion and Tactile Experience of the Divine in Late Medieval Denmark, Mads Vedel Heilskov.- Chapter 5 Haptic prayer, Devotional Books and Practices of Perception, Laura Katrine Skinnebach.- Chapter 6 Skin Christ. On the Animation, Imitation, and Mediation of LivingSkin and Touch in Late Medieval Contact Imagery, Hans Henrik Lohfert Jørgensen.- Part III Seizing Nothingness.- Chapter 7 The Making of Queer Visionary Discourses, David Carrillo-Rangel.- Chapter 8 Queer Touch Between Holy Women: Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, Birgitta of Sweden, and the Visitation, Laura Saetveit Miles.- Chapter 9 ConTact. Tactile Experiences of the Sacred and the Divinity in the Middle Ages, Victoria Cirlot and Blanca Garí.