Sensing the Past II

‘Death was chasing us’: The Sea as a Sensory Agent of Early Modern Community Formation

On 13 October 1494, Pietro Casola experienced a storm during a pilgrimage. Driven by the intensity of the multisensorial experience, he wrote: “The following night the sea was so agitated that every hope of life was abandoned by all; I repeat by all … Death was chasing us” (Casola 1494: 323). With the overwhelming sensory stimulation of the ship caught in a sea storm in mind, Tin Cugelj believes that Casola’s experience was not exaggerated for the narrative’s purpose. Yet was he alone in sensing it, or did he portray the communal experience? Was sensing the sea influential in sensing the communal “we”?

This paper, presented by Tin Cugelj, aims to understand the sea’s sensory agency on the group dynamics of early modern ad hoc maritime communities through critical textual and sensorial analyses of pilgrims’ lived experiences captured in travelogues. Additionally, it addresses the degree of the sea’s involvement in experiencing maritime travel, its multisensorial perception, and ponders the importance of the medium of travel in experiencing the early modern world, the subjectivity of lived experiences, and the geographical and social implications for sensory experiences. Lastly, it raises questions on how sensory experiences of historical crises might ease modern society’s collective sensory challenges.

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