Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation

Binski, Paul

ISBN 10: 0801433150 / ISBN 13: 9780801433153

Published by Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1996

1996. 224pp. B&W and colour illustration. Sunning to spine of jacket. Both book and unclipped dust jacket are otherwise in excellent condition with no inscriptions. All contents are tight and clean. "Medieval Death is an absorbing study of the social, theological, and cultural issues involved in death and dying in Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the early sixteenth century. Drawing on both archaeological and art historical sources, Paul Binski examines pagan and Christian attitudes towards the dead, the aesthetics of death and the body, burial ritual and mortuary practice.". Seller Inventory # MedievalLit082

Synopsis:

Medieval Death is an absorbing study of the social, theological, and cultural issues involved in death and dying in Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the early sixteenth century.
Drawing on both archaeological and art historical sources, Paul Binski examines pagan and Christian attitudes towards the dead, the aesthetics of death and the body, burial ritual and mortuary practice. The evidence is accumulated from a wide variety of medieval thinkers and images, including the macabre illustrations of the Dance of Death and other popular themes in art and literature, which reflect the medieval obsession with notions of humility, penitence, and the dangers of bodily corruption.
The author discusses the impact of the Black Death on late medieval art and examines the development of the medieval tomb, showing the changing attitudes towards the commemoration of the dead between late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. In the final chapter the progress of the soul after death is studied through the powerful descriptions of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory in Dante and other writers and through portrayals of the Last Judgment and the Apocalypse in sculpture and large-scale painting.

About the Author: Paul Binski now lectures in the Department of History of Art at Cambridge University.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Medieval Death: Ritual and Representation
Publisher: Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York
Publication Date: 1996
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good Plus
Edition: First Edition