This book reveals the workings of a culture that cherished death, and invested its resources in the pursuit of heaven. In sixteenth-century Spain, the social and economic debts of the living were extended to the dead, and society's central paradigms sought to invert perceptions, making death seem better than life itself. This is the first full-length study of this phenomenon. It differs from previous histories of death in two significant ways: in its methodology, which seeks to interweave social history and intellectual/cultural history; and in its geographical and cultural setting (previous studies have focused on France, Italy, and England). As a history of mentalites focused on a subject of universal significance, From Madrid to Purgatory transcends its 'Spanishness' and its time period while being wholly attentive to them.

The first full-length study of sixteenth-century Spanish attitudes towards death and the afterlife.
Reviews
'This is a finely researched, lucidly written and carefully nuanced study.' Henry Kamen, The Times Literary Supplement



Book Information
ISBN 9780521529426
Author Carlos M. N. Eire
Format Paperback
Page Count 588
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 927g
Dimensions(mm) 239mm * 154mm * 40mm