Description

Book Synopsis

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A RENAISSANCE-ERA EXECUTIONER AND HIS WORLD, BASED ON A RARE AND OVERLOOKED JOURNAL.

In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionateeven progressive?

In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidt''s journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt''s life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes o

The Faithful Executioner

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    A Paperback / softback by Joel F. Harrington

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      Book details

      Publisher Picador USA
      Published 31 December 2013
      ISBN-13 9781250043610
      978-1250043610
      ISBN-10 1250043611
      Also in:
      Autobiography: adventurers and explorers Law Criminal procedure Penology and punishment

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF A RENAISSANCE-ERA EXECUTIONER AND HIS WORLD, BASED ON A RARE AND OVERLOOKED JOURNAL.

      In a dusty German bookshop, the noted historian Joel F. Harrington stumbled upon a remarkable document: the journal of a sixteenth-century executioner. The journal gave an account of the 394 people Meister Frantz Schmidt executed, and the hundreds more he tortured, flogged, or disfigured for more than forty-five years in the city of Nuremberg. But the portrait of Schmidt that gradually emerged was not that of a monster. Could a man who practiced such cruelty also be insightful, compassionateeven progressive?

      In The Faithful Executioner, Harrington teases out the hidden meanings and drama of Schmidt''s journal. Deemed an official outcast, Meister Frantz sought to prove himself worthy of honor and free his children from the stigma of his profession. Harrington uncovers details of Schmidt''s life and work: the shocking, but often familiar, crimes o

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