Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Ars moriendi
(1,030 words)

1. Concept

Intensive engagement with death was a characteristic of the late Middle Ages. Much death literature survives from the 15th century in which the ars moriendi (Latin, “art of dying [well]”) was propagated. Such books became the most important vehicles for ideas of the ‘ideal’ death, and they remained so through the centuries that followed. These books, with their instructions on how to die well, were among the most popular literary genres in the late Middle Ages [5]. Originally written in Latin as…

Cite this page
Düselder, Heike, “Ars moriendi”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_017081>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160321



▲   Back to top   ▲