1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910231238503321

Autore

Davies Owen

Titolo

Executing Magic in the Modern Era [[electronic resource] ] : Criminal Bodies and the Gallows in Popular Medicine / / by Owen Davies, Francesca Matteoni

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2017

ISBN

3-319-59519-9

Edizione

[1st ed. 2017.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (VII, 118 p.)

Collana

Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife

Disciplina

306.09

Soggetti

Social history

History

Crime—Sociological aspects

Great Britain—History

Civilization—History

Social History

History of Science

Crime and Society

History of Britain and Ireland

Cultural History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

1. Introduction -- 2. Criminal Bodies -- 3. The Corpse Gives Life -- 4. The Places and Tools of Execution -- 5. Lingering Influences -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license This book explores the magical and medical history of executions from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century by looking at the afterlife potency of criminal corpses, the healing activities of the executioner, and the magic of the gallows site. The use of corpses in medicine and magic has been recorded back into antiquity. The lacerated bodies of Roman gladiators were used as a source of curative blood, for instance. In early modern Europe, a great trade opened up in ancient Egyptian mummies and the fat of executed criminals, plundered as medicinal cure-alls. However, this is the first book to consider the demand for the blood of



the executed, the desire for human fat, the resort to the hanged man’s hand, and the trade in hanging rope in the modern era. It ends by look at the spiritual afterlife of dead criminals.