Recasting Histories of Sound and Matter: Erasmus and the Bells of Averbode

Abstract

Erasmus's epigrams "On six restored bells"(ca. 1501) draw attention to their material origins in bells remade for the Premonstratensian Abbey of Averbode following a calamitous fire. In doing so, they allow an exploration of the tensions between holy matter speaking with present, embodied, sanctified voices, and a world where resonant matter is marginalized and past material voices speak to the soul through words on the page. By tracing bell cultures in the period, and emphasizing the dense resonances of bronze as a material, this article shows how Erasmus's approach to sound and matter both resonates with and transforms classical traditions and the local cultures of religious reform in the ..