Rythmes et croyances au Moyen Âge

Present in Latin and vernacular languages, in the sermon rhetoric, in prayers and songs, in the behaviour and the gestures, in streets and churches, rhythms are everywhere in the Middle Ages; as they are today, probably, but according to modalities – a scansion, a periodicity, “ways of flowing” – that are different and at the price of a learning process specific to medieval society. Not only do rhythms punctuate medieval time and space, but they also are at the heart of the relationship between belief and knowledge, secular and religious knowledges, and science and spirituality. More precisely still, they inform the techniques of “making-belief” – within this framework, what are the modalities of their transmission, their production, their diffusion, their circulation, by words, gestures, and images? What are the effects? How do the political, social, cultural, and linguistic mutations of the Middle Ages affect the rhythms and beliefs in return?