Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts ed. by Larissa Tracy

Abstract

Reviewed by: Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts ed. by Larissa Tracy Samaya Borom Tracy, Larissa, ed., Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts, Woodbridge, The Boydell Press, 2018; hardback; pp. 500; 1 b/w illustration; R.R.P. £60.00; ISBN 9781783273119. Historical accounts tell us that murder has always been present, from Sumerian codes of Ur-Nammu in 1900 bce through to contemporary societies’ fascination with most things crime related. Whilst the modus operandi of murder is somewhat consistent, there had been a change within society in understanding and prosecuting the matter, and this is where Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts makes for fascinating reading. In introducing Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts, Larissa Tracy argues that there is a long historical tradition around criminal justice; however, the ways in which society understands murder, manslaughter and justified or unjustified homicide has been shaped by both use of legal terminology as well as how law in society has been disseminated and understood. The book is broken into three parts, with essays thematically grouped to illustrate the ways in which murder was conceptualized and impacted upon communities and society in the Middle Ages. The first part, ‘Murder on Trial; Justice, Law and Society’, focuses on historical and legal frameworks for the prosecution of murder, such as Bridgette Slavin analysing the ninth-century Irish text Cáin Adamnáin (Law of Adomnán) and murder by magic. The second part of the book, with the theme ‘The Public Hermeneutics of Murder: Interpretation and Context’, looks closely at the ways in which murder and the assassination of political heads and influential figures is contextualized by the state and how this played out in public imaginings around power, religion, and society, in essays such as Matthew Lubin’s ‘Poisoning as a Means of State Assassination in Early Modern Venice’. The final part of the book presents chapters around ‘Murder in the Community: Gender, Youth and Family’, analysing how murder was defined and understood within families and communities and the impact this had on them, such as Ben Parsons’s discussion on entertainment in ‘Imps of Hell: Young People, Murder and the Early English Press’. Early Modern Murder: Literary and Historical Contexts sets a new discourse around the Middle Ages and how we might conceive of the evolution of the criminal justice system. Its carefully chosen chapters illustrate the various ways in which the concept of murder has changed over time and how this jurisdictional understanding has impacted upon communities not only from the Middle Ages, but potentially through to modern times. [End Page 269] Samaya Borom Monash University Copyright © 2020 Samaya Borom