THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A RENAISSANCE-ERA EXECUTIONER AND HIS WORLD, BASED ON A RARE AND OVERLOOKED JOURNAL.
In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful,...
THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A RENAISSANCE-ERA EXECUTIONER AND HIS WORLD, BASED ON A RARE AND OVERLOOKED JOURNAL.
Meet Frantz Schmidt - citizen of Nuremberg, executioner of 394 unfortunates, and torturer, flogger and disfigurer of many hundreds more. Frantz's other distinction was to be a diarist. Drawing on this exceptional and overlooked record that he kept for over 45 years, 'The Faithful Executioner' takes us deep into his world and his thinking. But the picture that emerges is not of a monster. Could a man who routinely practised such cruelty also be insightful, compassionate - even progressive?
Meet Frantz Schmidt - citizen of Nuremberg, executioner of 394 unfortunates, and torturer, flogger and disfigurer of many hundreds more. Frantz's othe...
