1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910793381003321

Autore

Böhmer Maria <1950->

Titolo

The man who crucified himself : : readings of a medical case in nineteenth-century Europe / / by Maria Bohmer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden ; ; Boston : , : Brill/Rodopi, , [2019]

ISBN

90-04-35360-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (313 pages)

Disciplina

610.94

Soggetti

Medicine - Europe - History - 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Copyright -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- The Man Who Crucified Himself -- The Storia della Crocifissione as an Epistemic Genre -- Making the Case Travel: Translation, Media, Reading -- Professional Readings: Religion -- Professional Readings: Madness -- Professional Readings: Suicide -- Popular Readings: Moral Education through Literary Entertainment -- Epilogue -- Back Matter -- Bibliography.

Sommario/riassunto

The Man Who Crucified Himself is the history of a sensational nineteenth-century medical case. In 1805 a shoemaker called Mattio Lovat attempted to crucify himself in Venice. His act raised a furore, and the story spread across Europe. For the rest of the century Lovat’s case fuelled scientific and popular debates on medicine, madness, suicide and religion. Drawing on Italian, German, English and French sources, Maria Böhmer traces the multiple readings of the case and identifies various 'interpretive communities'. Her meticulously researched study sheds new light on Lovat’s case and offers fresh insights on the case narrative as a genre - both epistemic and literary.