Corpus more regio curatum. When a king dies

DVOŘÁKOVÁ, Daniela.Corpus more regio curatum.When a king dies: Medieval post-mortem care of the body.The present study deals with how the bodies of deceased medieval kings and other significant persons were treated after death.The body of a monarch still represented royal majesty, which, according to the beliefs of the time, had been entrusted to him by God himself.Because royal majesty was seen as immortal, complex rites of passage were necessary for the burial of kings.One element of such rites throughout the whole Middle Ages was the preservation of the body of a deceased monarch through conservation methods and embalming, at the least enough to endure the forthcoming extensive funeral ceremonies.Embalming a body after death was originally only a privilege of kings.It began to spread around Europe throughout the 11 th and 12 th centuries, when the radius of engagement elites expanded as monarchs set off on far away military expeditions, crusades or long-distance pilgrimages.At the end of the High Middle Ages, roughly from the 14 th century, embalming became not only a practical matter, but also a social privilege and a matter of prestige.In addition to kings and popes, the bodies of princes, bishops and members of the highest aristocracy were also embalmed.This study discusses individual types of embalming and conservation techniques as well as the funeral rituals carried out for social elites. "In this book, the happy end of lives and delightful dying in the Lord is presented." So begins the medieval necrology (Book of the Dead, German Todtenbuch) of Czech provenance, in which lists of deceased persons were recorded, in this case, important members of the League of Lords from its foundation in 1467 until 1606. 1 Few today would describe death with the words "happy end" or "delightful dying." Medieval people, however, had a completely different relationship with death, not only because they were Christians and believed in life after death, but also due to the fact that they were in much closer contact with death than we are today.This work was supported by the APVV under grant 19-0131 "Ars moriendi.Fenomén smrti v

Ancient history · Art · Classical Studies and Legal History · Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History