Harding, Vanessa

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck College, University of London, Malet St., London WC1E 7HX, England. E-mail—v.harding@bbk.ac.uk.

CAREER:

Birkbeck College, University of London, London, England, senior lecturer. London Record Society, editor, 1983-2006.

MEMBER:

Royal Historical Society (fellow).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Arts and Humanities Research Council grants, 2003 and 2007; Wellcome Trust grant, 2006.

WRITINGS:

(With Derek Keene) A Survey of Documentary Sources for Property Holding in London before the Great Fire, London Record Society (London, England), 1985.

(With Priscilla Metcalf) Lloyd's at Home, Lloyd's of London (Colchester, Essex, England), 1986.

(Editor, with Ian Archer and Caroline Barron) Hugh Alley's Caveat: The Markets of London in 1598, London Topographical Society (London, England), 1988.

(Editor, with Laura Wright) London Bridge: Selected Accounts and Rentals, 1381-1538, London Record Society (London, England), 1995.

The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to anthologies, including The Times London History Atlas, edited by Hugh Clout, 1991; Grave Concerns: Death and Burial in England, 1700-1850, edited by M. Cox, 1998; Cambridge Urban History of Britain, edited by P. Clark, 2000; and Buyers, Sellers and Salesmanship in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, 2006. Author of articles for scholarly journals, including London Journal, Historical Journal, and the Journal of Interdisciplinary History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Vanessa Harding is an expert on the history of London whose best-known book is The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670. An exploration of death, funerals, and burials, the book is also a study in urban history. In it, she explores the similarities and differences in mortality between the two cities, both of which were large, highly urban areas with a long history of Christian burial traditions that were sometimes at odds with the land management needs of a growing community. During the period in question, London buried three to seven thousand people a year; Paris, the larger of the two cities, buried seventeen to twenty thousand a year. Both cities were forced to tackle issues of overcrowding—what to do with all those remains. One main difference is that the sick and dying around Paris were often removed to the large hospitals in the city, which then disposed of remains at the large, central cemeteries in the city. In London, the sick often died at home and funerals were held at a hundred or so village parishes, after which the body was buried in the church yard. The graveyards filled up fast, and an economy arose to address people's desire for a decent burial location. The most expensive spots (and those believed to be the closest to God) were inside the church; the poor were dumped in mass graves some distance from the sanctuary.

In terms of the social aspects of death, Londoners were more involved in the events surrounding death than Parisians. Funerals in London were unifying events for the parish community, even in the midst of the Reformation's turmoil, but in Paris death was observed from a distance and funerals became opportunities for violent clashes, usually against the Huguenots. Still, the French funerary business was a thriving industry, with many Parisian businesses providing services for lavish funerals. "Harding's book is as much a study of urban history and the tensions of urban life in London and Paris in the period as one of death," wrote William Gibson in Albion. "The dead," he concluded, "could destabilize the living in a literal and spatial sense as much as they could emotionally and religiously." Lucinda McCrart Beier, also writing in Albion, called The Dead and the Living in Paris and London "clearly structured, beautifully written, and thoroughly researched…. an admirable piece of historical scholarship and an enormously valuable contribution to both urban history and the history of death." Thomas Kselman concluded in a review for Church History that "Harding's decision to exclude religious beliefs from her study … skews her treatment in ways that limit its value," and Barbara Beckerman Davis concluded in the Renaissance Quarterly that Harding could have included more documentation regarding the costs of funerals, but called the book "fascinating and well-documented."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, June, 2003, William Gibson, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670; winter, 2004, Lucinda McCray Beier, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 643.

Choice, March, 2003, D.C. Baxter, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 1235.

Church History, September, 2004, Thomas Kselman, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 693.

Economic History Review, August, 1991, J.A. Chartres, review of Hugh Alley's Caveat: The Markets of London in 1598, p. 534; August, 1996, Matthew Davies, review of London Bridge: Selected Accounts and Rentals, 1381-1538, p. 602.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 2000, Philip F. Riley, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 168.

Journal of British Studies, January, 2005, Lee Beier, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 167.

Journal of Ecclesiastical History, October, 2003, Ralph Houlbrooke, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 761.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History, winter, 2004, Joel T. Rosenthal, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 447.

Journal of Modern History, June, 2005, Thomas Brennan, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 390.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2002, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 65.

Renaissance Quarterly, summer, 2004, Barbara Beckerman David, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, p. 663.

Sixteenth Century Journal, winter, 2003, Andrew Spicer, review of The Dead and the Living in Paris and London, 1500-1670, pp. 1164-1165.