ABSTRACT
Introduction Early modern Europe inherited the far from obvious idea of a sonic afterworld from earlier Christian traditions. It is not possible here to trace the complex history of this idea or even to précis it;2 rather, in the first part of this chapter I will give an account of the notion of ‘otherworldly’ soundscapes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries through the works of two leading spiritual authors of the time: the Dominican, Luis de Granada (1504-88), and the Jesuit, Jeremias Drexel (1581-1638). Their works were read widely and can be said both to have reflected standard ideas on the subject and to have contributed to their shaping. In the second part of the chapter, I will explore the interaction between celestial and terrestrial soundscapes in early modern cities and, finally, I will briefly discuss the negative ideal of the infernal soundscape.
