Ars moriendi

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Demons tempt a dying person with crowns (a sign of earthly pride) under the disapproving gaze of Mary, Christ and God the Father . Woodcut
Title page of an edition of Jean Gerson's Ars Moriendi , Uppsala 1514 (Sweden)

As Ars moriendi ( lat. For "The Art of Dying", "death of art") is one in the late Middle Ages created genre of devotional literature referred to the Christian teaches preparation for a good, life is good and salutary final death. It can Ars moriendi both the immediate situation of dying (the "good death") and the practice of dying at the right time and the "art of healing life and death" mean. The "opposite term" is Ars vivendi .

Emergence

In the Middle Ages , especially against the background of many epidemics such as the Black Death , people feared above all the unexpected death. Some saints, such as St. Christophorus or St. Joseph , were called against an unprepared death or a good death. The daily sight of St. Christophorus should protect against an unprepared death; the oversized representation of St. Christophorus in many churches served this purpose. There was a particular fear of having to die without proper preparation of the soul and without Christian accompaniment, for example by being slain by robbers.

With the practice of an ars moriendi one wanted to achieve that the people strive for the salvation of their soul (salus animae) while there was still time. In such a writ of edification there are usually explanations about the temptations and root sins that could be dangerous or detrimental to the salvation of the soul: temptations of faith, giving in to despair, succumbing to pride or pride (superbia) , as well as temptation through earthly goods , followed by explanations of how these temptations can be countered.

Around 1408, Jean Gerson wrote the prototype of the Ars moriendi text genre , the opus (culum) tripartitum . The Alsatian preacher Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg translated this work around 1481 under the title How to hold oneself sol by eym dying people and in 1497 wrote an independent text: An ABC of how one should send oneself to a blissful death .

The Ars moriendi of the master ES from 1415 or in a second version from 1450 contains numerous illustrative woodcuts, which in turn were based on illuminations by earlier authors.

Domenico Cardinal Capranica wrote another book of edification about a good death in 1452, the Speculum artis bene moriendi ("Mirror of the art of good dying", also Ars bene moriendi , "The art of good dying"), which was available in 1473 in German translation. In addition, many Artes moriendi were printed without naming the author. In the pictorial art of the Middle Ages, their basic attitude also corresponds to that of the so-called dance of death , the representation of which had its heyday from the late Middle Ages to the 16th century.

The ars moriendi was part of European philosophy until the Age of Enlightenment. So wrote Michel de Montaigne "philosophizing is dying learning".

See also

literature

  • Ars vivendi - Ars moriendi. The art of living - The art of dying. The Renate König manuscript collection. 34 of the most beautiful devotional books of the Middle Ages from what is probably the most important collection in German private ownership. Edited and edited by Joachim M. Plotzek u. a. Catalog for the exhibition in the Archbishop's Diocesan Museum in Cologne. Hirmer, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7774-9180-2 .
  • Klaus Bergdolt : The Meditatio Mortis as medicine. Reflections on the ethics of fear of death in the late Middle Ages and today. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 9, 1991, pp. 249-258, in particular pp. 252 ff.
  • Roger Chartier : Les arts de mourir, 1450–1600. In: Annales ESC Volume 31, 1976, pp. 51-75 (on the genre of Ars moriendi ).
  • Franz Falk: The German death books from the oldest period of book printing to the year 1520. Bachem, Cologne 1890; Reprint: Rodopi, Amsterdam 1969 (gives a good overview and other titles).
  • Alois M. Haas: Didactics of dying in text and images
  • Arthur E. Imhof : Ars moriendi. The art of dying then and now. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne (1991) 1993, ISBN 3-205-05361-3 .
  • Anne Klärner: The life culture of the ars moriendi. Literature as a way in life and death care. hospizverlag, Wuppertal 2006, ISBN 3-9810020-7-5 .
  • Peter Neher : Ars moriendi - A historical-pastoral theological analysis . Eos Verlag, St. Ottilien 1989, ISBN 3880968349 .
  • Jacques Laager (Ed / Translator): Ars moriendi. The art of living well and dying well. Texts from Cicero to Luther, with 11 copper engravings by Master ES Manesse, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-7175-1884-4 , ISBN 3-7175-1885-2 .
  • Claudia Resch: comfort in the face of death. Early Reformation instructions on pastoral care for the sick and dying , A. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 2006, ISBN 978-3-7720-8191-0 .
  • Rainer Rudolf, Rudolf Mohr, Gerd Heinz-Mohr : Ars moriendi I. Middle Ages II. 16th to 18th century III. Practically theological . In: Theological Real Encyclopedia . Volume 4, 1979, pp. 143-156.
  • Thomas Schwaiger: Christian Book of the Dead. Meditations on the end and the beginning. Kösel, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-466-36699-2 .
  • Magnus Schmid : The art of dying as an art of living. From the ars moriendi of the Middle Ages to true and false euthanasia today. In: Medical Practice. Volume 28, 1976, pp. 497-503.
  • Michael Stolberg : The History of Palliative Medicine. Medical care for the dying from 1500 until today. Mabuse-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-940529-79-4 , in particular pp. 44 f., 96 f. and 104-116.
  • ARS MORIENDI. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Supplement 2, Leipzig 1751, column 436 f.

Web links

Commons : Ars moriendi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Georg Wehrens: The dance of death in the Alemannic language area. "I have to do it - and don't know . Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2012, pp. 14 and 49 ff. ISBN 978-3-7954-2563-0 .
  2. ^ Heinrich Schipperges : The technology of medicine and the ethics of the doctor. It's about the patient. Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 74.
  3. ^ Heinrich Schipperges : The technology of medicine and the ethics of the doctor. It's about the patient. Frankfurt am Main 1988, p. 78.