The Medieval Prison: A Social History

(Paperback)

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Description

The modern prison is commonly thought to be the fruit of an Enlightenment penology that stressed man's ability to reform his soul. The Medieval Prison challenges this view by tracing the institution's emergence to a much earlier period beginning in the late thirteenth century, and in doing so provides a unique view of medieval prison life. G. Geltn

Reviews

"For most, neither the words 'medieval' nor 'prison' will conjure up particularly cheery images, and together their effect is so gothic as to be almost comical. Guy Geltner's intellectually vibrant history does much to shatter modernist preconceptions that either the period or the institution was universally nasty and brutish."--Times Literary Supplement "[Geltner] has contributed important work to an understudied subject that merits greater attention... As is traditional in good historical scholarship, the author has engaged in the time consuming and difficult task of archival research. In doing so, he has produced informative and well-documented scholarship on Italian medieval prisons and made a valuable contribution to this understudied and important historical subject."--Jonathan Rose, Reviews in History "The Medieval Prison can be recommended as a well written and excellently researched study based on a wide range of sources. It has a weighty scholarly apparatus, and one third of the text comprises footnotes and references... This small book packs a big punch."--Geoffrey Pearson, British Journal of Criminology "[Geltner's] account constitutes an admirable point of departure, absorbing in itself, and suggestive in its implications."--R. I. Moore, Journal of Social History

Author Bio

G. Geltner is professor of medieval history at the University of Amsterdam.