Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Dec. 11, 2012
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Prof. Albrecht Classen’s latest book Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Mental-Historical Investigations of Basic Human Problems and Social Responses published by De Gruyter addresses the principal that all societies are built around specific laws and ethics which determine the interactions of their people. The culture that develops in a given society is thus a wider discourse on behaviors held as right and wrong, good and evil and the effects of said behaviors on their societal environment. The articles in this text target specifically transgressive behaviors deserving punishment and their role in shaping societies ethically, legally and morally. Classen’s text discusses not only the negative backlash to criminal or otherwise undesirable behavior as seen in the law, but also acknowledges that protests against such behaviors are also demonstrated in various examples of literature and the arts.

All societies are constructed, based on specific rules, norms, and laws. Hence, all ethics and morality are predicated on perceived right or wrong behavior, and much of human culture proves to be the result of a larger discourse on vices and virtues, transgression and ideals, right and wrong. The topics covered in this volume, addressing fundamental concerns of the premodern world, deal with allegedly criminal, or simply wrong behavior which demanded punishment. Sometimes this affected whole groups of people, such as the innocently persecuted Jews, sometimes individuals, such as violent and evil princes. The issue at stake here embraces all of society since it can only survive if a general framework is observed that is based in some way on justice and peace. But literature and the visual arts provide many examples of open and public protests against wrongdoings, ill-conceived ideas and concepts, and stark crimes, such as theft, rape, and murder. In fact, poetic statements or paintings could carry significant potentials against those who deliberately transgressed moral and ethical norms, or who even targeted themselves. 

Dr. Albrecht Classen is a professor in the Dept. of German Studies at the University of Arizona. He is also a distinguished medievalist, whose research interests include the history of medieval and early modern German and European literature. He has studied at universities across Europe and the USA, receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.