Chapter 4 Urbanity around the Deathbed: Considerations from Early Modern London

In: The Moment of Death in Early Modern Europe, c. 1450–1800
Author:
Martin Christ
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Chapter
Pages:
61–78
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004517745_005

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Abstract

This chapter argues that there was an urban way of death, visible in cities like London. The presence of a range of professions, denominations and variety of friends are indicative of an urban diversity that was already recognized by early modern authors. This diversity was especially important during times of crisis, such as outbreaks of disease, when different medical professionals assembled around the deathbed, trying to prevent deaths. When they failed, one of the numerous clerics was consulted. London’s status as an international trade centre and hub for the exchange of goods and movement of people resulted in further diversity around the early modern deathbed. Discourses on death, including ones that recommended certain behaviours or rituals on the deathbed, included tropes such as the Heavenly Jerusalem or a City of Debauchery, illustrating the ambivalence of urbanity. There were fundamental differences in the ways an inhabitant of the early modern world died in London or a rural village. In order to fully understand the impact urbanity had on those living (and dying) in the early modern period, urbanity has to be taken into account as an analytical category.

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The Moment of Death in Early Modern Europe, c. 1450–1800

Contested Ideals, Controversial Spaces, and Suspicious Objects

Series:  Intersections, Volume: 89
Cover The Moment of Death in Early Modern Europe, c. 1450–1800
E-Book ISBN:
9789004517745
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
30 Apr 2024
Front Matter
Chapter 1 Introduction: the Moment(s) of Death in Early Modern Europe
Part 1 Approaching the Last Moments
Part 2 Ideal Deathbeds
Part 3 Objects and the Moments of Death
Part 4 Violence and Diseases
Back Matter

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