introduction Adriano Prosperi paints a similar picture:”The great theatre of death by execution was performed in city squares without any certainty regarding the outcome. Two lives were at stake: that of the body and that of the soul.”26 Thus, the interest of society in the salvation of the condemned probably grew. ’Legislation and practice’ are a way to describe the history of penal reality. New laws, however, are easier to examine than small differences in how they were adapted over time. The discussion of the legislation inevitably requires more space that perhaps its real relationship to practice would warrant; it is well known, though, that eventually possible capital sentences and executions for many crimes in many countries came not to occur or be carried out because of the way practices developed. A perspective not to be neglected is that around the time we identify as harbouring the Enlightenment the meaning and content of crime and punishment were changing. The emerging principle of legality is one important alteration occurring during this period.27 Capital and corporal punishment became increasingly problematic, while other punishments such as imprisonment grew in scope and importance. These changes eventually manifested themselves clearly at public executions. Which alongside fundamental motives such as seeking death or heaven or both, itself begs the question of the role of the execution. Was it a necessity for someone who sought execution by a capital crime, an inspiration, or perhaps astage on which they were to act and be seen? Although the present book concerns the history of crimes defined by the wish to be executed, this and the relationship between legislation and praxis bound the histories of the crimes to the history of the executions. Thus, the ways in which contemporaries interpreted executions will be part of this study. Important to note is that for a long time executions were not a single action, for example in France before the revolution there existed five difcondemned to death, because of original sin. The person who will be executed therefore does not differ fundamentally from other sinners.’ Delumeau 1982 p 1 sq. 26 Prosperi 2008 p 99. 27 Concerning the principle of legality and its forthcoming see e g Häthén 2004 p 11, 127, 141, 183. 27
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