From Madrid to Purgatory: The Art and Craft of Dying in Sixteenth-Century Spain

ISBN-13: 9780521460187 / Angielski / Twarda / 1995 / 588 str.

Carlos Eire; John Elliott; Olwen Hufton

Opis

This book reveals the workings of a culture that cherished death, and invested its resources in the pursuit of heaven. This is the first full-length study of Spanish attitudes toward death and the afterlife in the peak years of the Counter-Reformation. It contains an analysis of the death rituals requested in hundreds of sixteenth-century Madrid testaments, as well as a detailed account of the ways in which the "good" deaths of King Philip II and Saint Teresa of Avila were interpreted by contemporaries.

Recenzje

'This is a finely researched, lucidly written and carefully nuanced study.' Henry Kamen, The Times Literary Supplement

Spis treści

Prologue: death and the sun; Part I. Eager for Heaven: Death and Testamentary Discourse in Madrid, 1520–1599: 1. Wills and the history of death in Madrid; 2. Approaching the divine tribunal; 3. Relinquishing one's body; 4. Impressing God and neighbor; 5. Planning for the soul's journey; 6. Aiding the needy, aiding oneself; 7. Conclusion; Part II. The King's Dissolving Body: Philip II and the Royal Paradigm of Death: 1. King Philip and his palace of death; 2. The king's many requiems; 3. Drawing lessons from the king's death; 4. Defending the faith through ritual; 5. Death, the Spanish monarchy, and the myth of sacredness; 6. Conclusion; Part III. The Saint's Heavenly Corpse: Teresa of Avila and the Ultimate Paradigm of Death: 1. From Alba to Heaven; 2. Come sweet death, come swift dying; 3. Imperishable flesh, incomparable wonder; 4. Earthbound no longer; 5. Saint Teresa's apparitions; 6. Conclusion; Epilogue: in death as in life: from the daily rounds of Hell to the vestibule of Heaven.