Saint Catherine and the clock : Possible histories of sound and time in fourteenth-and fifteenth-century France
Journal article
Champion, Matthew S.. (2023). Saint Catherine and the clock : Possible histories of sound and time in fourteenth-and fifteenth-century France. Speculum : A journal of Medieval studies. 98(4), pp. 1166-1195. https://doi.org/10.1086/726285
Authors | Champion, Matthew S. |
---|---|
Abstract | This article charts the possible histories of sound and time inaugurated by a musical clock that was perhaps installed in the Benedictine Abbey of Sainte-Catherine-du-Mont, Rouen, in 1321. This clock is said to have played the advent hymn Conditor alme siderum [Dear Creator of the Stars] on its bells. The clock’s brief appearance in a later chronicle collection provides the cue for the article’s shape as a series of reflections on possible histories—historical analysis undertaken when the original object of research is empirically questionable. Commencing with an analysis of clocks with multiple bells from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the article shows that the clock at Rouen was not an anachronistic technology in the period. It then moves to consider the poetic temporalities of the hymn Conditor alme siderum, showing how multiple liturgical times were intertwined in the clock’s possible music. Turning from the object to the institution, the article then seeks out the historical and material conditions that may have made this clock possible at Sainte-Catherine’s. Finally, triggered by the connection of the clock to Saint Catherine herself, the article approaches sound and time through Catherine’s legend in the Legenda aurea and a sequence of images that can be arranged to reveal possible connections between sound, time, reason, devotion, and the suffering holy body. |
Keywords | Sainte-Catherine-du-mont; histories of sound and time; clock; Conditor alme siderum [Dear Creator of the Stars] |
Year | 01 Jan 2023 |
Journal | Speculum : A journal of Medieval studies |
Journal citation | 98 (4), pp. 1166-1195 |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
ISSN | 0038-7134 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1086/726285 |
Web address (URL) | https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/726285#d11961573e1133 |
Open access | Published as non-open access |
Research or scholarly | Research |
Page range | 1166 - 1195 |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | Oct 2023 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 2023 |
Deposited | 22 Aug 2024 |
ARC Funded Research | This output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 |
Grant ID | DE 200101479 |
Additional information | © 2023 Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. |
Research for this article was supported by the Australian Research Council (DE 200101479: <https://soundsoftime.org/>). | |
Place of publication | United States |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/90wzv/saint-catherine-and-the-clock-possible-histories-of-sound-and-time-in-fourteenth-and-fifteenth-century-france
Restricted files
Publisher's version
5
total views0
total downloads0
views this month0
downloads this month