BOOK: Francesco PAOLO DE CEGLIA, ed., The Body of Evidence: Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine (Leiden-New York: Brill, 2020). ISBN 978-90-04-28481-4, €154.00

(Source: Brill)

Brill is publishing a new book on forensic evidence in early modern Europe.

ABOUT THE BOOK

When, why and how was it first believed that the corpse could reveal ‘signs’ useful for understanding the causes of death and eventually identifying those responsible for it? The Body of Evidence. Corpses and Proofs in Early Modern European Medicine, edited by Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, shows how in the late Middle Ages the dead body, which had previously rarely been questioned, became a specific object of investigation by doctors, philosophers, theologians and jurists. The volume sheds new light on the elements of continuity, but also on the effort made to liberate the semantization of the corpse from what were, broadly speaking, necromantic practices, which would eventually merge into forensic medicine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Francesco Paolo de Ceglia, Ph.D. (2001), is a Professor of History of Science at the University of Bari, where he directs the Interuniversity Research Center, Seminary of the History of Science. He has often been a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. He has published monographs and articles on the relationship between the history of science and theology, including The Secret of Saint Januarius. Natural History of a Neapolitan Miracle (Einaudi, 2016).

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures

Contributing Authors
Introduction: Corpses, Evidence and Medical Knowledge in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia


SECTION 1. FROM DIVINATION TO AUTOPSY

1. Saving the Phenomenon: Why Corpses Bled in the Presence of their Murderer in Early Modern Science
Francesco Paolo de Ceglia

2. Unfamiliar Faces: The Identification of Corpses In Late Medieval Valencia
Carmel Ferragud

3. Reading the Corpse (Bologna, Mid 13th-Early 16thth Century)
Tommaso Duranti


SECTION 2. THE UNCERTAINTIES OF THE ANATOMICAL GAZE

4. Dissection Techniques, Forensics and Anatomy in the Sixteenth Century
Allen Shotwell

5. Monstrous Exegesis: Opening Up Double Monsters in Early Modern Europe
Alan W.H. Bates 

6. Corpses, Contagion and Courage: Fear and the Inspection of Bodies in Seventeenth-Century London
Kevin Siena

7. Knowledge from and on Bodies and Resistance to Anatomical Discourse (Padua, 16th-18th Centuries)
Massimo Galtarossa


SECTION 3: CORPSES AND EVIDENCES

8. Reading Deeds, Lifestyles and Bodies: The Classification of Suicide in Early Modern Europe
Alexander Kästner

9. Corpses and Confessions: Forensic Investigation and Infanticide in Early Modern Germany
Margaret Brannan Lewis

10. Visum et Repertum: Medical Doctrine and Criminal Procedures in France and Naples (17th-18th Centuries)
Diego Carnevale

11. Frightening Whirlpools: Drowning in France in the Eighteenth Century
Lucia De Frenza and Caterina Tisci

Bibliography
Index

More info here