"The Deaths of the Popes: Comprehensive Accounts, Including Funerals, Burial Places, and Epitaphs"

CHOICE Current Reviews for Academic Libraries www.choicemag.org The following review appeared in the May 2005 issue of CHOICE. The Deaths of the Popes: Comprehensive Accounts Including Funerals, Burial Places, and Epitaphs. (McFarland, 2004). ISBN 0786415274, $65 Beginning with St. Peter’s upside-down crucifixion (c. 67 CE), papal history abounds with stories of strange and often horrible deaths. Martyrdom, murder, and the mundane stand alongside mystery, ceremony, faith, and politics. Reardon admirably chronicles the salient facts and legends drawn from a plethora of sources to highlight these fascinating crises and transitions in the life of the Catholic Church. Her preface states that she hopes to appeal to both scholars and general readers. She accomplishes this by maintaining a casual, often whimsical tone while presenting meticulous, well-documented information, sometimes humorous or unique (she includes the recipe for the pickled eels that choked Pope Martin IV). She adds surprising nuggets such as Dante’s placement of a given pope in heaven or hell. But the best gift to scholars is the inclusion of papal epitaphs, many translated into English for the first time. The introduction and appendixes provide useful context and related information. Summing up: Highly recommended. All Collections. –J.D. Potter, Eastern Washington University

This book, by writer, scholar, and historian Wendy Reardon, is the complete story of papal deaths from St. Peter to John Paul I, and includes all the anti-popes as well. In it you will find:

• Illustrations of papal tombs before they were destroyed
• Rare photos and illustrations of all existing papal tombs
• Every single papal epitaph in both Latin and English
• Deathbed scenes, last words, papal funeral practices
• Customs and rituals from the beginning of the papacy to today
• Papal funeral mishaps and accidents
• Alleged and factual causes of death
• Rare seventeenth century exhumation reports of popes written during the destruction of St. Peter's, translated into English for the very first time