From Madrid to Purgatory The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth-Century Spain |
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| Author:
| Eire, Carlos M. N. |
| Contribution by:
| Elliott, John
Hufton, Olwen
Koenigsberger, H. G.
Scott, H. M. |
| Series title: | Cambridge Studies in Early Modern History Ser. |
| ISBN: | 978-0-521-46018-7 |
| Publication Date: | Jun 1995 |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | USD $168.00 |
Book Description:
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This book reveals the workings of a culture that cherished death, and invested its resources in the pursuit of heaven. In sixteenth-century Spain, the social and economic debts of the living were also extended to the dead, and its central paradigms sought to invert perceptions, making death seem better than life itself. This is the first full-length study of this phenomenon. It differs from previous histories of death in two significant ways: in its methodology, which seeks to...
More DescriptionThis book reveals the workings of a culture that cherished death, and invested its resources in the pursuit of heaven. In sixteenth-century Spain, the social and economic debts of the living were also extended to the dead, and its central paradigms sought to invert perceptions, making death seem better than life itself. This is the first full-length study of this phenomenon. It differs from previous histories of death in two significant ways: in its methodology, which seeks to interweave social history and intellectual/cultural history; and in its geographical and cultural setting (previous studies have focused on France, Italy, and England). As a history of mentalities focused on a subject of universal significance, From Madrid to Purgatory transcends its Spanishness and its time period while being wholly attentive to them.