Urban soundscape: defining space and community in twelfth-century of Jerusalem

The First Crusade was imagined by a twelfth-century author as carrying a pleasant sound that resonated throughout the world; The sonus et amor, the sound and love, of the pilgrims' way to Jerusalem was to become the sound of victory and hope of perpetual happiness when the first crusaders established their kingdom and gave thanks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The study of sounds as an important component in the shaping of medieval cities contributes greatly to representing the diversity of activity in the medieval public sphere. In the medieval city, sounds often gave the urban space a particular meaning in the cycle of the year, month, week or day. The installation of church bells in Jerusalem by Godfrey's early command exemplifies many of the attributes of bells just mentioned, but this was just one sound among many others that refashioned Jerusalem's soundscape in the early 12th century.