Spoken Word and Social Practice

Thomas V. Cohen (Ph.D., 1974, Harvard University), is Professor of History and Humanities at York University in Toronto. He writes microhistories about the cultural and political anthropology of early modern Rome, championing close cultural reading of social documents and the narrative light touch.Lesley Karen Twomey (Ph.D., 1995, Hull University) is Reader in the Department of Arts at Northumbria University. She has published monographs on material culture in religious writing and a study of doctrine in Hispanic poetry and many articles on Isabel de Villena, a fifteenth-century Franciscan woman writer.

"This collection of essays successfully recovers and reconstructs a variety of late medieval and early modern oral practices. [...] The essays in this volume provide remarkable insight into late medieval and early modern orality, demonstrating how recovering speech habits also affect larger historical, literary, and cultural discussions. [...] For many who could not read or write, orality provided a form of power as well as a sense of community and belonging. This theme courses throughout many of the essays in this volume, and indeed, is what makes it such a strong and intriguing read for historians and literary scholars alike." Chelsea McKelvey, Southern Methodist University in: Sixteenth Century Journal 48/2 (2017), pp. 505-506."From the first cry at birth to the last words on the deathbed, oral communication is essential to humankind. Spoken words transmit ideas, shape identities, manage power, give pleasure. Obvious, yes, and yet all too easy to forget when interpreting the past through silent writings, images, and objects. Orality, nevertheless, was even more pervading in medieval and early modern times than today, and its interactions with writingmore complex and mutual. Scholars are increasingly aware that recovering this dimension, albeit difficult and uncertain, is potentially revealing—as this book confirms.[...] thanks to the wide scope of its case studies, together with the methodological relevance of some, this collection has undoubtedly something valuable to offer to anyone interested in the study of oral culture and communication as an opportunity to sharpen and even transform our understanding of the Renaissance world." Luca Degl’Innocenti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, in: Renaissance Quarterly, 71/1 (2018), pp. 278-279

• ContentsAcknowledgements ixList of Figures xList of Contributors xiLife and Works of Alexander Francis Cowan xiiBibliography of Alexander Cowan xiVIntroduction 1Thomas V. Cohen and Lesley K. TwomeyWitches’ Words1 Oral Transfer of Ideas about Witchcraft in Seventeenth-CenturyNorway 47Liv Helene Willumsen2 St Helena and Love Magic: From the Spanish Inquisition to theInternet 84Susana Gala PellicerWords on Trial3 The Power of the Spoken WordDepositions of the Imperial Chamber Court: Power, Resistance,and ‘Orality’ 115Matthias Bähr4 Tracking Conversation in the Italian Courts 139Thomas V. CohenPreaching the Word5 Tears for Fears: Mission Preaching in Seventeenth-Century France –a Double Performance 185Anne Régent-Susini6 Powerful Words: St Vincent Ferrer’s Preaching and the Jews inMedieval Castile 206Carolina Losada7 ‘A Most Notable Spectacle’: Early Modern Easter Spital Sermons 228Sonia SumanWord on the Street8 Orality and Mutiny: Authority and Speech amongst the Seafarersof Early Modern London 253Richard J. Blakemore9 ‘A Blabbermouth Can Barely Control His Tongue’: Political Poems,Songs and Prophecies in the Low Countries (Fifteenth–SixteenthCenturies) 280Jan Dumolyn and Jelle Haemers10 Proverbs and Princes in Post-Reformation England 300Marcus Harmes and Gillian ColcloughGossip and Gossipers11 The Meanings of Gossip in Sixteenth-Century Venice 321Elizabeth Horodowich12 Gossip and Social Standing in Celestina: Verbal Venom as Art 343Joseph T. SnowPrayer, Teaching, and Religious Talk13 Oral Rites: Prayer and Talk in Early Modern France 375Virginia Reinburg14 The Seducer’s Tongue: Oral and Moral Issues in MedievalErotodidactic Schooltexts 393Rosanna Cantavella15 Preaching God’s Word in a Late-medieval Valencian Convent:Isabel de Villena, Writer and Preacher 421Lesley K. Twomey16 Afterword 446Michael J. BraddickBibliography 463Index 486