A talk by research fellow Tekla Bude.

At some point around 1480, two men—John Norton and Richard Methley—entered the Carthusian Charterhouse of Mount Grace deep in the Yorkshire wilderness, where they became part of a monastic order known for its strict adherence to eremitic ideals. For the rest of their lives, they, like all Carthusians, would speak only sparingly, and would spend the majority of their time alone, in their monastic cells, praying and copying books.

What’s remarkable is that both Norton and Mehley kept diaries about the mystical experiences they had while in Mount Grace. And their diaries reveal a deep degree of collaboration, mutual reading, exchange, and loving friendship over a years-long experience of mystical song. In this talk, Bude will discuss how Methley and Norton’s mystical diaries serve as sites for the production of an intersubjective sonic body through which these two men expressed their affection and desire for one another.

Tekla Bude teaches in OSU’s School of Writing, Literature, and Film. Her research focuses on ways medieval writers were influenced by and influenced the study of music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Her new book project investigates forms of ‘silent’ or ‘metaphysical’ music in literature from 1300-1550. It explores music beyond the corpus of notated manuscripts and theoretical treatises, and rather, as a function of social life as well as a form of critique and rebellion.