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Bezig met laden... Dagboek van een beul meester Frantz Schmidt Van Neurenberg 1554 - 1634 (2013)door Joel F. Harrington
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I just didn't like it. The subject matter and primary source material should have made it right up my alley, but the book did not engage me at all. Could have been a case of the wrong book at the wrong time, so I would encourage anyone who is interested in it and has access to a library copy to go for it. This book is based chiefly on the diary of Nuremberg executioner Frantz Schmidt, who worked in this capacity for the city from 1588 to 1617. It also uses other contemporary sources to depict not only a life of the protagonist, but the picture of late medieval Europe. While there are some gruesome details of the trade, they aren’t the point. The executioner himself says almost nothing about the executions and nothing at all about tortures, which he had to perform. There are several works of fiction that attempt to look in the executioner’s mind, to show either his cruelty, or more often his dignity in performing the necessary albeit unpleasant job. Not in this case: Frantz disliked the job, or more precisely the low status associated with it: hangmen had to live outside the city, they weren’t allowed to enter a church, could be stoned to death by a mob, etc. He became the executioner because his father was pressed into the job and all other trades were closed for him. Therefore, his lifetime goal was to save his children from the similar fate. One of the more surprising discoveries (for me) was that he also worked as a healer, which makes sense if you this about it – the knowledge of anatomy and healing external wounds are essential for a torturer. The number of his patients was around 15000, which it much more than 394 persons he executed. A great window into the late medieval Europe. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington is a biography of a German executioner, based on his diary. he Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century by Joel F. Harrington is a wonderful book based on a remarkable journal kept by the executioner of Nuremberg, Meister Franz Schmidt. Along with the “work” of Meister Schmidt, the author vividly re-creates life in sixteenth century Nuremberg and its surroundings. The biography recounts the stigma an executioner had during his lifetime. The executioner was an outcast of society, even though a good one was difficult to find and much appreciated, and so was his family. The stigma helped created a lineage of executioners since that was one of the few jobs they were able to hold in such a class conscious society. Master Schmidt kept his journal for the main purpose of restoring honor to his family from the horrible career which they were forced into. This is a fascinating book, not for the squeamish but the horror is not there for horror’s sake, but instead to help the reader understand the time and the techniques used by the biographies subject. I was surprised to learn that many executioners at the time considered themselves professionals and were proud of how little their “clients” suffered, unless instructed by the state to prolong their death. An executioner which botched an execution could be fired (good luck integrating into society) or even lynched by the angry crowd. Meister Schmidt would also torture and patch criminals up if needed even though, it seemed, he understood the effectiveness of psychological torture better than some contemporaries of ours. Because of his intimate knowledge of anatomy, the executioner, an outcast I must remind you again, was sometimes called upon to heal the sick and injured of the general population. Many took great pride in that second profession. This is a wonderful book, at times unpleasant to read because of the horrendous crimes or sometimes equally horrendous punishments. The world was very brutal in the sixteenth century, the author makes that clear, and Meister Schmidt was an integral part of the state to keep order and relative safe. For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com Quite a good biographical microhistory based around the remarkable journal of a Nuremberg executioner. Harrington uses Frantz Schmidt's lengthy account of his life and of the executions he carried out over many years to explore the crimes and punishments of sixteenth-century Nuremberg (and surrounding areas). More than that, though, he also examines the official social stigma that attached to executioners and their families, and Schmidt's long effort to restore his family's honor. Gets a mite slow at times, but overall this is very much worth a read. I will read this book again, sooner rather than later. An intriguing story about family redemption through being virtuous, sober and an expert at his work, . The fact that Meister Frantz is an executioner made me think about the time he lived and the society. There is more to it than 'I was just doing my job' or 'I was just following orders'. I would like to have seen facsimiles of the diary Joel Harrington worked from. His selected quotations giver an idea of content but I would like to see how sequential entries were laid out. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
"The extraordinary story of a Renaissance-era executioner and his world, based on a rare and overlooked journal In the late 1500s a Nuremberg man named Frantz Schmidt began to do something utterly remarkable for his era: he started keeping a journal. But what makes Schmidt even more compelling to us is his day job. For forty-five years, Schmidt was an efficient and prolific public executioner, employed by the state to extract confessions and put convicted criminals to death. In his years of service, he executed 361 people and tortured, flogged, or disfigured hundreds more. Is it possible that a man who practiced such cruelty could also be insightful, compassionate, humane--even progressive? In his groundbreaking book, the historian Joel F. Harrington looks for the answer in Schmidt's journal, whose immense significance has been ignored until now. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt's medical practice, his marriage to a woman ten years older than him, his efforts at penal reform, his almost touching obsession with social status, and most of all his conflicted relationship with his own craft and the growing sense that it could not be squared with his faith. A biography of an ordinary man struggling for his soul, The Faithful Executioner is also an unparalleled portrait of Europe on the cusp of modernity, yet riven by conflict and encumbered by paranoia, superstition, and abuses of power. In his intimate portrait of a Nuremberg executioner, Harrington also sheds light on our own fraught historical moment"--"A work of nonfiction that explores the thoughts and experiences of one early modern executioner, Nuremberg's Frantz Schmidt (1555-1634), through his own words - a rare personal journal, in which he recorded and described all the executions and corporal punishments he administered between 1573 and his retirement in 1617"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)364.66092Social sciences Social problems and services; associations Criminology Punishment Death penaltyLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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