Présentation de l'éditeur

When, why and how was it first believed that the corpse could reveal ‘signs’ useful for understanding the causes of death and eventually identifying those responsible for it? The Body of Evidence. Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine, edited by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, shows how in the late Middle Ages the dead body, which had previously rarely been questioned, became a specific object of investigation by doctors, philosophers, theologians and jurists. The volume sheds new light on the elements of continuity, but also on the effort made to liberate the semantization of the corpse from what were, broadly speaking, necromantic practices, which would eventually merge into forensic medicine.

Sommaire

Corpses, Evidence and Medical Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age
By: Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

From Divination to Autopsy

Saving the Phenomenon: Why Corpses Bled in the Presence of Their Murderer in Early Modern Science
By: Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

Unfamiliar Faces: the Identification of Corpses in Late Medieval Valencia
By: Carmel Ferragud

Reading the Corpse in the Late Middle Ages (Bologna, Mid-13th Century–Early 16th Century)
By: Tommaso Duranti

The Uncertainties of the Anatomical Gaze

Dissection Techniques, Forensics and Anatomy in the 16th Century
By: Allen Shotwell

Monstrous Exegesis: Opening Up Double Monsters in Early Modern Europe
By: Alan W.H. Bates

Corpses, Contagion and Courage: Fear and the Inspection of Bodies in 17th-Century London
By: Kevin Siena

Knowledge from Bodies and Resistance to Anatomical Discourse (Padua, 16th–18th Centuries)
By: Massimo Galtarossa

Corpses and Evidences

Reading Moral Conduct and Physical Characteristics: the Classification of Suicide in Early Modern Europe
By: Alexander Kästner

Corpses and Confessions: Forensic Investigation and Infanticide in Early Modern Germany
By: Margaret Brannan Lewis

Visum et Repertum: Medical Doctrine and Criminal Procedures in France and Naples (17th–18th Centuries)
By: Diego Carnevale

Frightening Whirlpools: Drowning in France in the 18th Century
By: Lucia De Frenza and Caterina Tisci