2 For the earliest use of bell ringing in Byzantium and the Orthodox Balkans, see Suarez, A. Rodriguez, ‘Towards a new religious soundscape: the introduction of bell ringing in the Byzantine Empire’, in Chevallier, B. Caseau and Neri, E. (eds.), Rituels religieux et sensorialité (Antiquité et Moyen Age). Parcours des recherches (Milan 2021) 331–43Google Scholar, and ‘When did the Serbs and the Bulgarians adopt bell ringing?’, CAS Working Paper Series 10 (2018) 3–31.

3 Miljković, B., ‘Semantra and bells in Byzantium’, Zbornik radova Vizantološkog instituta 55 (2018) 271–303Google Scholar; Hannick, C., ‘Die Bedeutung der Glocken in byzantinischen und slavischen Klöstern und Städten’, in Haverkamp, A. (ed.), Information, Kommunikation und Selbstdarstellung in mittelalterlichen Gemeinden (Munich 1998) 1–23Google Scholar; Kazhdan, A. (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford 1991) III.1868Google Scholar; Williams, E. V., The Bells of Russia: history and technology (Princeton 1985) 10–19Google Scholar; Dombart, T., ‘Das Semanterium, die frühchristliche Holzglocke’, Die christliche Kunst 20 (1924) 51–63, 77–8Google Scholar.

4 One of the earlier depictions of the semantron appears on an ninth-century manuscript, Evangelatou, M., ‘Liturgy and the illustration of the ninth-century marginal psalters’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 63 (2009) 59–116Google Scholar (105, fig. 3). For further representations, see the database GABAM Byzantine Musical Instruments Collection: https://librarydigitalcollections.ku.edu.tr/en/collection/byzantine-musical-instruments-collection/

5 Stichel, R., ‘Jüdische Tradition in christlicher Liturgie: zur Geschichte des Semantrons’, Cahiers archéologiques 21 (1971) 213–28Google Scholar.

6 Vie de Théodore de Sykeón, ed. A. Festugière, 2 vols (Brussels 1970) I.77, II.80.

7 Meyendorff, P., On the Divine Liturgy (Crestwood NY 1984) 56–9Google Scholar.

8 The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: an eleventh-century pillar saint, ed. R. P. H. Greenfield (Washington DC 2000) 129.

9 Gautier, P., ‘Le typikon de la Théotokos Évergétis’, Revue des études byzantines 40 (1982) 5–101 (25, 27, 33)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The metal version is still quite common in Greek Orthodox monasteries and those of the Orthodox Churches in the Balkans.

10 A. Rodriguez Suarez, ‘Bell ringing on Mount Athos during the Ottoman period, II: Bells’, Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας 42 (2021) 387–414.

11 d'Alessio, E. Dalleggio, ‘Le texte grec du traité conclu par les Génois de Galata avec Mehmet II le Ier Juin 1453’, Ελληνικά 11 (1939) 118, 124Google Scholar.

12 Cohen, M. R., ‘What was the pact of ʿUmar? A literary-historical study’, Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 23 (1999) 100–57Google Scholar (107: ‘we shall only beat our clappers in our churches very quietly’).

13 I. Shagrir, ‘Urban soundscape: defining space and community in twelfth-century of Jerusalem’, in I. Shagrir, B. Z. Kedar and M. Balard (eds.), Communicating the Middle Ages: essays in honour of Sophia Menache (London 2018) 103–20.

14 Jacques de Vitry, The History of Jerusalem, tr. A. Stewart (London 1896) 80–1.

15 T. Kaffenberger, ‘Bell towers, bell gables, and bellcotes in Late Medieval Cyprus: the appropriation of new habits and architectural fashions in a multi-denominational environment,’ Frankokratia 4 (2023) 89–129.

16 A. Rodriguez Suarez, ‘Two church bells from Antalya: traces of the religious soundscape of the Late Ottoman period’, Adalya 23 (2020) 523–5.

17 For the use of bells, see J. H. Arnold and C. Goodson, ‘Resounding community: the history and meaning of Medieval church bells’, Viator 43/1 (2012) 99–130; E. Neri, ‘Les cloches: construction, sens, perception d’un son: quelques reflexions à partir des témoignages archéologiques des ‘fours à cloches’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 55 (2012) 473–96.

18 C. Bernazzani, ‘La campana civica: tra signum, simbolo e celebrazione visiva’, Opera ⋅ Nomina ⋅ Historiae: Giornale di cultura artistica 2/3 (2010) 287–392.

19 J. Linhart Wood, Sounding Otherness in Early Modern Drama and Travel (Cham 2019) 5.

20 C. Rouxpetel, L'Occident au miroir de l'Orient chrétien : Cilicie, Syrie, Palestine et Égypte (XIIe-XIVe siècle) (Rome 2015) 198–9.

21 Opera Liturgica Omnia, ed. J. M. Hanssens (Vatican City 1948–50) II.470: ‘Praecellit enim aes ligno. Eodem enim signo ante Stephanum pontificem per omnes horas consecratis colligebantur fideles ad ecclesiam; quem usum Illyrici et omnis Graecia adhuc observat’.

22 It must be noted that, according to him, the wooden signal was also employed in Rome before Pope Stephen II (752–7). If we are to believe this, the semantron, or a similar instrument, had also been employed in the city of the popes. The construction of a bell tower in St Peter's is attributed to Stephen II, P. Romano, Campane di Roma (Rome 1944) 10–11.

23 K. N. Ciggaar, ‘Une description de Constantinople dans le Tarragonensis 55’, Revue des études byzantines 53 (1995) 117–40 (122: ‘Appropinquante denique hora qua divina debent fieri miracula, percutitur tabula lignea ad vocandum in ecclesiam populum, quia Greci aliud non habent signum ad huiusmodi offîcium. Non quod desit eis es aut metallum ad facienda signa more Latinorum, sed illud agunt, ut dicunt, ad exemplum apostolorum qui ob metu paganorum clam ad hostium domus Christianorum ligneam percuciebant tabulam ut hoc signo properarent ad ecclesiam’).

24 Die Kniga palomnik des Antonij von Novgorod, ed. A. Jouravel (Wiesbaden 2019) 276–9. He also specifies that the Byzantines strike semantra while the Latins ring bells. This detail confirms that he was surprised to encounter the wooden instrument. Indeed, by that time bell ringing seems to have been common in Kievan Rus, B. Kindratiuk, ‘The origins of bell-ringing in Kievan Rus’, Journal of the International Society for Orthodox Church Music 2 (2016) 37–43. Thus, Westerners were not the only travellers to be astonished to discover the practice.

25 Ludolph von Sudheim, ‘De itinere Terre Sancte’, Archives de l'Orient latin 2 (1884) 368: ‘Campanis vtuntur, ubi dominantur, sed ubi sunt sub Latinis percutiunt tabulas cum ferro artificialiter sonante.’ The first part of the reference is incorrectly translated in Rouxpetel, L'Occident au miroir de l'Orient chrétien, 199.

26 George Pachymeres, Relations historiques, ed. A. Failler, 4 vols (Paris 1984–99) III.29.

27 Embajada a Tamorlán, ed. F. López Estrada (Madrid 1943) 77: ‘quando ofiçia la misa, non tiene libro nin tañen campanas en las iglesias, salvo en Santa Sofía de Costantinopla, que con unas tablas tañen a misa.’

28 Miljković, ‘Semantra and bells in Byzantium’, 287–96.

29 H. Delehaye, Deux typica byzantins de l’époque des Paléologues (Brussels 1921) 49, 52; H. Delehaye, ‘Constantini Acropolitae hagiographi byzantini epistularum manipulus’, Analecta Bollandiana 51 (1933) 263–84 (282–3).

30 John Bekkos, Περὶ ἀδικίας, ἧς ὑπέστη, τοῦ οἰκείου θρόνου ἀπελαθείς, ed. J. P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus Completus, Series Graeca 141 (Paris 1857–66) c. 953.

31 Fra Niccolò da Poggibonsi, Libro d'oltremare (1346–1350), ed. A. Bacchi della Lega (Jerusalem 1945) 146. His account was the basis for an illustrated guidebook to the Holy Land, Viaggio da Venetia al Santo Sepolcro, et al monte Sinai (Venice 1606), K. Blair Moore, ‘The disappearance of an author and the emergence of a genre: Niccolò da Poggibonsi and pilgrimage guidebooks between manuscript and print’, Renaissance Quarterly 66/2 (2013) 357–411.

32 Felix Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti peregrinationem, ed. K. D. Hassler, 4 vols (Stuttgart 1843–49) III.230: ‘Ecclesiae multae sunt in illa urbe, tam latinae quam graecae. In latinis sunt campanilia cum campanis, et cum clericis latino more officiantibus. In graecis sunt pinnacula cum ligneis instrumentis, quibus convocant suum populum ad divina, et graece canunt et legunt.’ English translation in C. Delaval Cobham, Excerpta Cypria: materials for a history of Cyprus (Cambridge 1908) 42.

33 At least when they were free to choose. According to Fabri, Catholic clergy in Jerusalem resorted to a ‘tabula’, perhaps a semantron or something similar, to gather the faithful, Fabri, Evagatorium in Terre Sanctae, I.242.

34 Voyage de Jacques Le Saige, de Douai, a Rome, Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, Venise, Jérusalem et autres saints lieux, ed. H.-R. Duthilloeul (Douai 1851) 140: ‘Quant fut lheure du salue, ung de nos pellerins me monstra une chose de quoy fus bien esbahis. Ce fut ung valton avoit sur son espaul une roille bien de dix pieds de long et environ trois paulx de large et tapoit au millieu de ladite roille, tout deux petits marteles de bos et menoit cela si grant bruit que cestoit merveille. Cestoit le salue que sonoit; javoie ouy maintesfois marteles; mais ne scavoie que cestoit, en pluseurs eglises de grecqs nont point daultres cloches, aussy ne leur coutte guaire.’ English translation in Excerpta Cypria, 59.

35 An inventory of properties (compiled in 1556) of the deceased Zuanbattista Campanato, a bell founder based in Venice, mentions a bell cast for Cyprus: V. Avery, Vulcan's Forge in Venus’ City: the story of bronze in Venice 1350–1650 (Oxford 2011) 76, 157 n. 69.

36 Williams, The Bells of Russia, 13–14, fig. 8.

37 Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, Este libro es de el viaje que hize a Ierusalem (Seville 1606) 101: ‘No tienen campanas, sino vna tabla, y de esta manera tañen a missa, e a todas las horas. Pienso, que deue ser esto: porque sea conocido, entre ellos, quando tañen los Griegos, o los Latinos.’

38 Viaggi di Pietro della Valle il Pellegrino (Brighton 1843) I.219: ‘…mi trovai presente agli uffici; alli quali chiamano i frati, non con campane, ma con certe aste di legno e di ferro, che battono con alcune mazze che fanno un suono molto bello, massimamente quando suonano a doppio in un certo modo di musica come usano talvolta di fare in Roma con le campane nel monastero di santa Caterina de'Funari.’

39 The church of Santa Caterina dei Funari, rebuilt by Cardinal Federico Cesi in the mid-sixteenth century, was provided with a carillon made in Germany, S. Spartà, I campanili di Roma (Rome 1983) 144.

40 Mémoires du chevalier d'Arvieux, ed. Jean-Baptiste Labat (Paris 1735) II.127–8: ‘Le derriere de l'Autel est occupé par une grande piece de bois, soûtenuë par deux traverses de fer. C’est sur cette piece de bois, qui leur tient lieu de / cloche, que les Grecs sonnent leurs Offices, en battant dessus avec des masses de bois, que deux ou trois Sonneurs tiennent à chaque main, avec les quelles ils frappent en cadence de toutes leurs forces. Rien n'est plus importun que ce carillon éclatant & désagréable, & comme dans toutes les occasions ils affectent de nous donner des marques de leur mauvaise volonté, ils ne manquent jamais de faire ce bruit étourdissant, quand nos Religieux font leur Office, afin de les interrompre.’

41 The Catholic clergy of the Holy Sepulchre employed small bells within the church, but these instruments are only reported from the eighteenth century, E. Horn, Ichnographiae Monumentorum Terrae Sanctae (1724–1744), ed. E. Hoade (Jerusalem 1962) 86.

42 Corneille le Brun, Voyage au Levant (Delft 1700) 101, 103. This is a French translation of the Dutch original.

43 William J. Hamilton, Researches in Asia Minor, Pontus, and Armenia (London 1842) I.247.

44 E.g. on Mount Athos: L. Allatios, De Templis Graecorum Recentioribus (Cologne 1645) 4 and n. 63.

45 E. A. Finn, Home in the Holy Land: a tale illustrating customs and incidents in Modern Jerusalem (London 1866) 40–1.

46 Encyclopédie de l’Islam, 2nd ed., VII, 943; Ḥ. Zayyāt, Al-Diyārāt al-Naṣrānīa fī al-ʾislām [Christian monasteries in the land of Islam] (Beirut 1938) 90–6.

47 Isṭifān al-Duwayhī, Tārīkh al-Ṭāʾifa al-Mārūnīa [History of the Maronite community], ed. R. a.-K. Shartūnī (Beirut ca.1890) 103.

48 W. C. Prime, Tent Life in the Holy Land (New York 1857) 81.

49 E. Wellesz, A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography (Oxford 1962) 91–4.

50 The Latin community had employed a pipe organ in the Holy Sepulchre since at least the seventeenth century, Horn, Ichnographiae, 11–12.

51 J. Finn, Byeways in Palestine (London 1877) 440. In a footnote the instrument is called by one of its Greek names, σήμαντρον.

52 From the second half of the sixteenth century, bells had announced the time in Ottoman cities of the Balkans.

53 Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales, The Cruise of Her Majesty's Ship “Bacchante”, 1879–1882 (London 1886) II.626.

54 G. Fisk, A Pastor's Memorial of Egypt, the Red Sea, the Wildernesses of Sin and Paran, Mount Sinai, Jerusalem, and Other Principal Localities of the Holy Land, Visited in 1842 (London 1845) 300 (Mar Saba); W. F. Lynch, Narrative of the United States’ Expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea (Philadelphia 1849) 272, 277 (Mar Saba); A. Lindsay, Letters on Egypt, Edom, and the Holy Land (London 1838) I.342 (St Catherine).

55 W. Hepworth Dixon, The Holy Land (Leipzig 1865) I.225. Mar Saba may have had a clock associated with a bell: C. Wilson (ed.), Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt, 4 vols (London 1881–4) I.151.

56 A. Wallace, The Desert and the Holy Land (Edinburgh 1868) 117. On the next page he calls the instrument ‘zimandro’.

57 Ibid. 118.

58 This is confirmed in Wilson, Picturesque Palestine, III.234: ‘Bells are only rung on church festivals and occasions of rejoicing, or to show respect to some high dignitary.’

59 L. Petit, ‘Typikon du monastère de la Kosmosotira près d’Aenos (1152)’, Izvestiia Russkogo arkheologicheskogo instituta v Konstantinopole 13 (1908) 17–77 (23); A. Rodriguez Suarez, ‘The Sebastokrator Isaac Komnenos: Manuel I’s Latinophile uncle?’, in D. Slootjes and M. Verhoeven (eds.), Byzantium in Dialogue with the Mediterranean. History and heritage (Leiden 2019) 189–93.

60 R. M. Dawkins, ‘Notes on life in the monasteries of Mount Athos’, The Harvard Theological Review 46/4 (1953) 217–19.

61 F. A. Neale, Eight Years in Syria, Palestine, and Asia Minor, from 1842 to 1850 (London 1851) 255.

62 P. Rycaut, The present state of the Greek and Armenian Churches, Anno Christi, 1678 (London 1679) 396.

63 W. Macmichael, Journey from Moscow to Constantinople, in the years 1817, 1818 (London 1819) 80.

64 D. Benga, Istoria şi semnificația clopotului şi a toacei în Biserica Ortodoxă (Bucharest 2016) 47–54.

65 Eusèbe de Salle, Pérégrinations en Orient, ou Voyage pittoresque, historique et politique en Égypte, Nubie, Syrie, Turquie, Grèce pendant les années 1837-38-39 (Paris 1840), I.152: “A Ahden, il y a un évêque maronite dont la cathédrale a des cloches : dix autres églises plus petites n'annoncent leurs offices que par des naqous ou règles de bois sonore emmanchées en forme de T, et sur lesquelles on frappe avec un petit maillet”.

66 Suarez, A. Rodriguez, ‘The religious soundscape of Mount Lebanon in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (2023)Google Scholar: https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2023.2209026

67 Suarez, A. Rodriguez, ‘Qannūbīn Monastery and the Religious Soundscape of the Maronites in the 16th and 17th Century’, Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 74 (2022) 48–72 (71–2)Google Scholar.

68 Weinryb, I., The Bronze Object in the Middle Ages (Cambridge 2016) 104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69 Linhart Wood, Sounding Otherness, 5.

70 Ibid., 86.

71 Laudien, T., De simandris graecorum, sive de ritu convocandi populum ad sacra per ligna (Königsberg 1716) 16–32Google Scholar.

72 Campbell, C., Rowley, D. Korbacher, N. and Vowles, S., Mantegna & Bellini (London 2018) 128Google Scholar. I thank Dr Tassos Papacostas for drawing my attention to this representation.