Medieval Death

Mediaeval Death is a study of the social, theological and cultural issues involved in death and dying in Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the Reformation in the early 16th century. Drawing on both archaeological and art historical sources, Paul Binski examines pagan and Christian attitudes towards the dead, the aesthetics of death and the body, burial ritual and mortuary practice. The evidence is accumulated from a wide variety of mediaeval thinkers and images, including the macabre illustrations of the Dance of Death and other popular themes in art and literature which reflect the mediaeval obsession with notions of humility, penitence and the dangers of bodily corruption.