Dr Skidelsky launches 'Virtues of the Dead' website

Dr Edward Skidelsky has launched a new website relating to his research into the history of virtue and vice terms.

"Virtues of the Dead” (epigraphs.net) is a website collecting together memorials of the virtuous dead from churches and cathedrals across England. To date, it contains images of 350 inscriptions. Searches can be run under various headings - name, profession, date of death, listed virtues, etc. - with results organised chronologically and bunched into decades. This enables users to look for individual epitaphs of uncommon interest and/or to identify trends and correlations. Were women more likely to be praised for “tenderness” than men? Was 'devotion to duty' a peculiarly late-Victorian ideal? The answer seems to be “yes” in both cases.

“Virtues of the Dead” is the first website of its kind in the UK. It grew out of Dr Skidelsky's own research into the history of virtue and vice terms, but he hopes to expand it into a general resource for all those interested in British intellectual and cultural history.