Resounding Ships: Sound and Music of Sacred Sea Travel between Venice and Jerusalem (c. 1450-1650)

The maritime route between Venice and Jerusalem testified to an incredible exchange of thousands of people in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Among these were pilgrimages, which gathered transregional, multiethnic and multireligious communities, brought together through sound in spite of their language, cultural and religious differences.

Pilgrims’ diaries narrate a sense of community that was initiated and preserved by sound phenomena such as noise and silence, sonic practices such as sounding trumpets or whistles, and various music practices, including chanting.

In the current time, marked by intensifying interethnic, intercultural and religious tensions, my project advocates for and fosters multicultural cohesion within modern society.Despite being naturally prominent in general early modern travel, sound’s meaning for the travelling community remains under-researched, and has rarely been considered within in-between, transitional spaces of mobility and cultural exchange.

SOUNDSHIP offers a new, far more more nuanced understanding of sound perception in early modern communities, their formation and preservation, and will be the first systematic study of sound and music in early modern travel.

It will do so through an innovative application of sound studies, auditory history, historical musicology, religious studies, and performance practice research on pilgrims’ narratives, philosophical, music, medical treatises, and music practices.With a strong track record in assessing music historiographies through sound studies, Dr Cugelj will work with Prof James Mansell, an international expert for sound methodology and innovative practices in sound research at the University of Nottingham.

The MSCA will establish Dr Cugelj as an independent sound scholar with international reach, advancing the field of historical sound studies through the investigation of sonic identities.