The Crime of Poison in the Middle Ages

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Franck Collard and Deborah Nelson-Campbell

ISBN: 0-313-34699-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-34699-6

DOI:

312 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 9/30/2008

List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £34.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Also Available: Ebook

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

History » European History -- Medieval

Reviews:

"Recommended for academic libraries supporting graduate studies in history."
—Catholic Library World June 2009

Description: This book will lead readers into a medieval culture of ambition, greed, and jealousy that motivated men and women to take the lives of individuals who trusted them. Collard examines the perception of the crime of poisoning in the West in medieval times, from about 500 to 1500 AD, exploring the ways the alleged crime was perceived in contemporary minds. His primary sources are chronicles that cover the entire medieval period and legal texts that are limited to the late medieval centuries. In order to portray the culture of murder by poisoning in the West, it was necessary to take into account Byzantine and Islamic documents as well as ancient texts such as the Scriptures and the writings of Roman historians, both of which were widely known in the Middle Ages.

This book will lead readers into a medieval culture of ambition, greed, and jealousy that motivated men and women to take the lives of individuals who trusted them. In these pages, French medievalist Franck Collard examines the perception of the crime of poisoning in the West from about 500 to 1500. His primary sources of information are chronicles that cover the entire medieval period and legal texts that are limited to the late medieval centuries. In order to portray the culture of murder by poisoning in the West, he takes into account Byzantine and Islamic documents, as well as ancient texts such as the Scriptures and the writings of Roman historians, both of which were widely known in the Middle Ages.

The resulting volume is concerned with the criminal actions that involve poison and not poison as such. Poisonous substances as such are described only when necessary for an understanding of a crime. What is important here is an examination of the ways the alleged crime was perceived in contemporary minds. Poisoning avoids the use of violence. It was committed without a drawn weapon or bloodshed in a world in which wounds, swords, knives, and clubs represented aggression and in which the flow of blood determined the gravity of the crime. Necessarily involving preparation and secrecy, it was often perpetrated treacherously during a meal, a particularly heinous act in a universe that was united by the companionship of a meal and the sociability of drinking. The special horror associated with poisoning resulted from the treachery of those close to the victim-and a sudden death that prevented a final confession of sins.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter I An Elusive Crime?
The Crime as Event: The Emergence of the Crime in Narrative
The Crime and Its Description: Its Existence in the Judicial Code
The Difficulty in Quantifying Cases of Poisoning
Chapter II A Unique Weapon
The Poison Market
Products that Were Used and the Instructions
A Invincible Weapon? How to Prevent and to Recover from Poisoning
Chapter III The Sociology of Poisoning
Profiles of the Victims of Poisoning
The Faces of the Poisoners
The Crime of Poison in the World of Relationships
Chapter IV Horrendum scelus. An Abominable Crime
A Crime Described in Superlatives
The Reasons for the Abomination: How to Kill
The Reasons for the Abomination: Objectives and Effects of Poisoning
Chapter V Pursuit and Punishment
Theoretical Bases and Effective Practice
The Poisoner on Trial
Sentences and Sanctions
Chapter VI Beyond Crime: Issues and Uses of Poison
Poisonous Aggression, Heroism and Sainthood
The Accusation of Poisoning and Social Regulation
The Use of Poison: A Theme of Propaganda
Conclusion
Major Sources
Selected Bibliography
Index of Major Historical Figures

About the Author: FRANCK COLLARD is Professor of Medieval History at the Universite de Paris X Nanterre. Apart from numerous published articles, he has also written Pouvoirs et culture politique dans la France medievale, Ve-XVe siecle (1999) and Pouvoir et Poison. Histoire d'un crime politique de l'Antiquite a nos jours, ed. du Seuil, Paris (2007).

DEBORAH NELSON-CAMPBELL is Professor of French Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Languages at Rice University. A scholar of medieval French and Occitan language and literature, she has published four books and numerous articles and book reviews mostly on French medieval topics, especially courtly narrative lyric poetry. She has taught at Rice University since 1974.

PDF Catalogs:
Academic Library Fall 2008.pdf	Academic Library Spring 2009.pdf
Greenwood History Spring 2008.pdf


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