What is it about?
The article examines a French prayer book from the eighteenth century, in which multiple individuals have scribbled their thoughts and religious sentiments. By looking at these handwritten annotations, it becomes clear that even though the book defines praying as a silent and interior matter, humans seem to want to mediate their religious feelings through corporeal and haptic activity, in this case: scribbling notes in the margins of a prayer book.
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Perspectives
Early modern prayer books typically provide believers with instructions on how to pray. How they actually prayed often remains unclear. The annotations in this book give insight into praying as a performative practice.
Rogier Gerrits
University of Hamburg
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This page is a summary of: Elevating the Soul: Annotation and Intermediality in French Meditation Books, November 2025, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004746640_007.
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