Executing Magic in the Modern Era : Criminal Bodies and the Gallows in Popular Medicine

by Owen Davies

2020-05-28 14:09:40

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 licenseThis 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 t... Read more
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.
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Book Details

File size8.27x5.83x0.38inches
Print pages118
PublisherPalgrave MacMillan
Publication date July 1, 2017
ISBN9783319595184
Author
Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He has written extensively on the history of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, and popular medicine, including The Haunted: A So...

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