Nicolas Bock

Weltliches Bestattungsbrauchtum zwischen Mittelalter und Renaissance

Textual and visual sources of religious sepulcral rites are well documented, but only very few examples of corresponding secular rites can be described with accuracy. So far, only the research on the burial rites of the French kings has provided information on the different types which were common in the case of knightly burials. The “discovery” of a Neapolitan tomb-relief affords new insights, as it describes a secular burial rite of a nobleman at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is testimony of the close connections between France and the kingdom of the Anjou-Durazzo. It demonstrates how the French royal ceremonies were adapted and changed by the nobility in Southern Italy in order to serve their special intentions: to document and preserve the continuity of secular power and political rights.