From Words To Space. Textual Sources For Reconstructing And Understanding Medieval Sacred Spaces

Can words alone help us grasp the material and phenomenological complexity of a space from the past? The most likely answer is no. It is undeniable, however, that texts are nonetheless a fundamental resource in attempts to reconstruct medieval sacred spaces that have either disappeared or whose architectural, aesthetic, and ritual aspects have been altered. The essays collected in this volume, written by specialists in the history of art, architecture, and liturgy, demonstrate this in many ways. They discuss various categories of textual sources related or linkable to sacred, ritual, and liturgical spaces in the Middle Ages, and although the geographical focus is on Southern Italy, other Italian and European cases are also included. The textual sources drawn upon span those of a narrative character (chronicles, gesta, hagiographies) to early modern records about medieval buildings and their decoration; from ekphrasis to ritual instructions and musical notations. The aim is to (re)consider both well- and less-known written sources and to explore some of the hermeneutical questions posed by their relationships to monuments, landscapes, and artistic products.