The Sacred Sound of Silence: On the Intermediality of the Unvoiced Oraison mentale in French and Italian Religious Poetry (Anne Picardet, Jean Crasset, Lucrezia Marinella)

Stephanie Wodianka

Jump to Content

Chapter 4 The Sacred Sound of Silence: On the Intermediality of the Unvoiced Oraison mentale in French and Italian Religious Poetry (Anne Picardet, Jean Crasset, Lucrezia Marinella)

In: Practising Piety

Author:

Stephanie Wodianka

Stephanie Wodianka
Search for other papers by Stephanie Wodianka in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed

Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 106–130

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004746640_005

Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

€42.00€35.00 excl. VAT

Add to Cart

Redeem Access Token

Abstract

The revaluation of mental prayer through the Council of Trent and the lack of a definition of the ‘inner voice’ increased the awareness not only of the different nuances of the voice but, more surprisingly perhaps, also of the nuances of its absence. As this paper argues, silence, quietness – the empty spaces between sounds – gained a new medial quality and thus laid the foundation for an intermedial functionalisation of the beginning, pausing and ending of prayer. Following the general desire for detailed instruction within the oraison mentale, there was soon textual instruction for this very practice (Lorenzo Scupoli: Combattimento spirituale, 1589; François de Sales: Introduction à la vie dévote, 1609): which, when read out loud, led to a paradoxical performance of intermediality. By looking at selected meditative poems by the French poets Anne Picardet (circa 1580– after 1632) and Jean Crasset (1618–1692) as well as the Italian poet Lucrezia Marinella (1571–1653), this paper explores how the momentary silence that is inherent to the beginning and ending of meditation and to the pauses in between emerged as a medium in its own right, and thus generated a medial interplay between text, voice, mental image and performance.

Citation Info

Save
Cite
Email this content

Share link with colleague or librarian

You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:
Email this content
or copy the link directly:

https://brill.edhh.ma/abstract/book/9789004746640/BP000014.xml
The link was not copied. Your current browser may not support copying via this button.

Link copied successfully

Collapse
Expand

Practising Piety

Spiritual Intermediality and Devotion in Early Modern Europe

Series: Intersections, Volume: 101

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004746640

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 21 Nov 2025

Subjects

Front Matter

Part 1 Intermedial Communication

Part 2 Matters of Intermediality

Part 3 Intermedial Worship

Part 4 Intermedial Transformations

Back Matter

ProCite

RefWorks

Reference Manager

BibTeX

Zotero

EndNote

Metrics

	All Time	Past 365 days	Past 30 Days
Abstract Views	101	101	8
Full Text Views	6	6	0
PDF Views & Downloads	13	13	0

African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

Subjects

Authors

Open Access

Product Information

Company

Contact

Chapter 4 The Sacred Sound of Silence: On the Intermediality of the Unvoiced Oraison mentale in French and Italian Religious Poetry (Anne Picardet, Jean Crasset, Lucrezia Marinella)

Abstract

Citation Info

Share link with colleague or librarian

Practising Piety

Spiritual Intermediality and Devotion in Early Modern Europe

Table of Contents

References

Metrics

Metrics