Corpse as Text: Disinterment and Antiquarian Enquiry, 1700-1900

Between 1700 and 1900, the subject of disinterment (exhumation) attracted the attention of antiquaries, who constructed a comprehensive memory of the past by ''reading'' corpses as documents describing an idealised past.

Between 1700 and 1900, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were stereotyped, idealised, and held as a standard by which the present time could be measured. Various figures in ...