Circulation and Control of Speech in Dominican Convents (13th-14th Century)

In order to understand the genesis and application of an ideal Dominican use of language practices, it is important to place it in a paradoxical context between active life (promoting an exemplary and efficient speech) and contemplative life (valuing silence). Heirs to the monastic tradition of guarding the tongue and actors in an unprecedented expansion of preaching to the people, the Dominicans had to become the & ldquo;new masters of the speech & rdquo;, while guarding against the sins of the tongue, which were particularly studied in the thirteenth century. They took as their models of eloquence not only Saint Dominic but also the first friars of their order, while at the same time promulgating a strict regulation of speech within the community which circulated more vertically than horizontally. We shall see that speeches from outside the enclosure penetrated the convent, via the writing down of oral sources in the collections of exempla and via the exchange of letters among certain Dominican nuns