The empire of death : a cultural history of ossuaries and charnel houses / Paul Koudounaris.

London : Thames & Hudson, 2011.

224 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 31 cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: a dialogue with death -- Ars Moriendi: The early charnel houses -- The golden age: Counter-reformation macabre -- The triumph of death: nineteenth-century visions in bone -- Heavenly souls: spiritualism and mythology in the bone pile -- Forget me not: ossuaries as commemorative sites -- Resurrecting the dead: conservation and reconstruction.