ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines key elements of late-medieval thought on the senses and sensation and lays the foundations for later discussions of their place in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century English religious life. It looks at problems surrounding sensation in late-medieval thought. Sensory history must be grounded in an approach that sees examination of one sense as only part of a greater sensory complex'. The sensorium', as Ong and McLuhan called it, is a kind of operational' entity where particular senses are expressions or manifestations of overarching principles that shape sensation and perception within a given cultural context. Late-medieval English culture recognized this ubiquity, and believed that controlling the senses was the first step in the self-governance that set rational beings apart from animals. The senses were the bridge between object and percipient. Aristotelian thought determined the shape of this bridge as much as the motion, agency and flow on it. Senses were ranked according to physicality and how much information each conveyed.
