Edited by Vicent Josep Escartí
[IVITRA Research in Linguistics and Literature 28] 2021
► pp. 11–24
The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship established between women and silence during the Late Middle Ages. Silence itself was valued as a virtue for all the faithful; however it was demanded of every woman as the necessary condition to show honesty and devotion. Moreover, loquacity was considered a natural attribute of women, who, according to moralists, used the word in many negative ways, especially to criticize other women or to convince men to behave wrongly. As a result, the imposition of silence and therefore the restriction of the word – spoken or written – became tools aimed to exercise control over women and to perpetuate the prevailing models of imbalance and inequality between men and women at a time precisely in which female voices were gaining greater authority within some intellectual circles. To this end, we analysed the sermons of one of the most remarkable preachers at the time, saint Vicent Ferrer, since preaching was an effective way of propagation of role models. In addition to this, we studied images such as paintings or book illuminations, which contributed also to spread the ideal of the silent woman, following the example of the Virgin Mary, who barely spoke in the New Testament. Nevertheless, the Holy Mother and other female saints were often represented reading the Bible, which encouraged some women to read and possess Books of Hours or other Prayer Books.
Article language: Catalan