The Executioner's Journal

Meister Frantz Schmidt of the Imperial City of Nuremberg

Nonfiction, History, European General
Cover of the book The Executioner's Journal by Joel F. Harrington, University of Virginia Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Joel F. Harrington ISBN: 9780813938714
Publisher: University of Virginia Press Publication: September 2, 2016
Imprint: University of Virginia Press Language: English
Author: Joel F. Harrington
ISBN: 9780813938714
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Publication: September 2, 2016
Imprint: University of Virginia Press
Language: English

During a career lasting nearly half a century, Meister Frantz Schmidt (1554-1634) personally put to death 392 individuals and tortured, flogged, or disfigured hundreds more. The remarkable number of victims, as well as the officially sanctioned context in which they suffered at Schmidt’s hands, was the story of Joel Harrington’s much-discussed book The Faithful Executioner. The foundation of that celebrated work was Schmidt's own journal--notable not only for the shocking story it told but, in an age when people rarely kept diaries, for its mere existence.

Available now in Harrington’s new translation, this fascinating document provides the modern reader with a rare firsthand perspective on the thoughts and experiences of an executioner who routinely carried out acts of state brutality yet remained a revered member of the local community, widely respected for his piety, steadfastness, and popular healing. Based on a long-lost manuscript thought to be the most faithful to the original journal, this modern English translation is fully annotated and includes an introduction providing historical context as well as a biographical portrait of Schmidt himself. The executioner appears to us not as the frightening brute we might expect but as a surprisingly thoughtful, complex person with a unique voice, and in these pages his world emerges as vivid and unforgettable.

Studies in Early Modern German History

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

During a career lasting nearly half a century, Meister Frantz Schmidt (1554-1634) personally put to death 392 individuals and tortured, flogged, or disfigured hundreds more. The remarkable number of victims, as well as the officially sanctioned context in which they suffered at Schmidt’s hands, was the story of Joel Harrington’s much-discussed book The Faithful Executioner. The foundation of that celebrated work was Schmidt's own journal--notable not only for the shocking story it told but, in an age when people rarely kept diaries, for its mere existence.

Available now in Harrington’s new translation, this fascinating document provides the modern reader with a rare firsthand perspective on the thoughts and experiences of an executioner who routinely carried out acts of state brutality yet remained a revered member of the local community, widely respected for his piety, steadfastness, and popular healing. Based on a long-lost manuscript thought to be the most faithful to the original journal, this modern English translation is fully annotated and includes an introduction providing historical context as well as a biographical portrait of Schmidt himself. The executioner appears to us not as the frightening brute we might expect but as a surprisingly thoughtful, complex person with a unique voice, and in these pages his world emerges as vivid and unforgettable.

Studies in Early Modern German History

More books from University of Virginia Press

Cover of the book Pilgrimage to Vallombrosa by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Cotton's Queer Relations by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Willful Submission by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book After Apartheid by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book The Bourgeois Interior by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Prophetic Remembrance by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book We Face the Dawn by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Resurrections by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Spectacular Suffering by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Citizens of a Common Intellectual Homeland by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Slavery and War in the Americas by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book A Warring Nation by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book Drawing the Line by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book The Art of Fiction by Joel F. Harrington
Cover of the book The Algerian New Novel by Joel F. Harrington
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy