Dealing With the Dead: Mortality and Community in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Description

Death was a constant, visible presence in medieval and renaissance Europe. Yet, the acknowledgement of death did not necessarily amount to an acceptance of its finality. Whether they were commoners, clergy, aristocrats, or kings, the dead continued to function literally as integrated members of their communities long after they were laid to rest in their graves. From stories of revenants bringing pleas from Purgatory to the living, to the practical uses and regulation of burial space; from the tradition of the 'ars moriendi', to the depiction of death on the stage; and from the making of martyrs, to funerals for the rich and poor, this volume examines how communities dealt with their dead as continual, albeit non-living members. Acknowledgments -- List of Illustrations -- List of Contributors. Introduction / Thea Tomaini. Part 1: Discourses and Intercessions. 1. The Talking Dead: Exhortations of the Dead to the Living in Anglo-Saxon Writing / Hilary Fox -- 2. Sudden Death in Early Medieval England and the Anglo-Saxon 'Fortunes of Men' / Jill Hamilton Clements -- 3. Monumental Memory: The Performance and Enduring Spectacle of Burial in Early Anglo-Saxon England / Melissa Herman -- 4. Dealing with the Undead in the Later Middle Ages / Stephen Gordon -- 5. "Look at my Hands": Physical Presence and the Saintly Intercessor at Wilton / Kathryn Maud -- 6. The Corpse of Public Opinion: Thomas of Norwich, Anti-Semitism, and Christian Identity / Mary E. Leech. Part 2: Law and Civic Life. 7. Outlaws and the Undead: Defining Sacred and Communal Space in Medieval Iceland / Justin T. Noetzel -- 8. A Funeral Procession from Venice to Milan: Death Rituals for a Late-Medieval Wealthy Merchant / Martina Saltamacchia -- 9. Live by the Sea, Die by the Sea: Confronting Death and the Dead in Medieval Liguria, 1140-1240 CE / Nikki Malain -- 10. The Medieval Cemetery as Ecclesiastical Community: Regulation, Conflict, and Expulsion, 1000-1215 / Anthony Perron -- 11. The Corpse as Testimony: Judgment, Verdict, and the Elizabethan Stage / Thea Tomaini Part 3: Funerary Art and Mementi Mori. 12. Reappropiated Antiquity in the Funerary Art of the Kingdom of Leon and Castile in the High Middle Ages / Sonsoles Garcia Gonzalez -- 13. Exploring Late-Medieval English 'Memento Mori' Carved Cadaver Sculptures / Christina Welch -- 14. Holbein's 'Mementi Mori' / Libby Karlinger Escobedo -- Afterword: A Few Thoughts on the Dead, the Living, and Liminal Existence / Wendy J. Turner. General Bibliography -- Index.