The Place of the Dead: Death and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

This volume of essays provides a comprehensive treatment of a very significant component of the societies of late medieval and early modern Europe: the dead. It argues that to contemporaries the 'placing' of the dead, in physical, spiritual and social terms, was a vitally important exercise, and one which often involved conflict and complex negotiation. The contributions range widely geographically, from Scotland to Transylvania, and address a spectrum of themes: attitudes towards the corpse, patterns of burial, forms of commemoration, the treatment of dead infants, the nature of the afterlife and ghosts. Individually the essays help to illuminate several current historiographical concerns: the significance of the Black Death, the impact of the protestant and catholic Reformations, and interactions between 'elite' and 'popular' culture. Collectively, by exploring the social and cultural meanings of attitudes towards the dead, they provide insight into the way these past societies understood themselves.

James M. Boyden is Associate Professor of History at Tulane University, New Orleans Clive Burgess teaches in the History department at University College London Nancy Caciola is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego Samuel K. Cohn Jr is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Glasgow Will Coster is Senior Lecturer in History at De Montford University, Bedford Bruce Gordon is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Associate Director of the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute Vanessa Harding is Senior Lecturer in History at Birkbeck College, London J. S. W. Helt is Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan-Flint Peter Marshall is Lecturer in History at the University of Warwick Graeme Murdock is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham Penny Roberts is Lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Warwick Philip M. Soergel is Associate Professor at Arizona State University, Tempe Andrew Spicer teaches at Stonyhurst College and is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen Larissa Juliet Taylor is Chair and Associate Professor of History at Colby College