The Soundscapes of the Silenced

In the Florence of the Late Renaissance, one in five women lived behind the walls of institutions where sensory mortification was practiced. Historians struggle to recover those ineffable secrets. “Just as our body has five senses,” wrote a 16th century priest, “there are five windows through which death enters us.” If we opened those windows, what other things would come in? The stench to urine of a tannery. The ringing of rattles in the hats o…