The faithful executioner : life and death, honor and shame in the turbulent sixteenth century
(Book)

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Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
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Main Library - Adult BiographyB S3512hChecked Out

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Published
New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.
Format
Book
Physical Desc
xxvi, 283 pages : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
Language
English

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (p. [239]-264) and index.
Description
"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 he, 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"--,Provided by publisher.

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APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Harrington, J. F. (2013). The faithful executioner: life and death, honor and shame in the turbulent sixteenth century . Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Harrington, Joel F. 2013. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Harrington, Joel F. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Harrington, Joel F. The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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