The expression Writing on Tombs used in the title of this book refers to all kind of texts involved in the making of a tomb during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period : not only the inscriptions engraved in stone or marble, a constituent of the tomb and never an accessory element, but also the documentary, narrative or poetical sources concerning its form and iconography, its spiritual, symbolic, or political meaning, its perception or its “historicization”. Along with tombs of great prestige, such as those of Frederick II and Boniface VIII, the papers collected in this volume deal with a huge variety of little-known burials, for patrons belonging to different social status and cultures across many regions of Europe over more than a millennium.

The authors analyse how texts contributed to shaping the object-tomb through the reading or the re-reading of medieval textual sources, the function of the epitaphs and their manuscript tradition, the written and material reuse of the past, the epigraphical practices of writing, and the funerary customs in Modern Europe.

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Preface
I. Reading the Textual Sources on Sepulchral Monuments
Ingo Herklotz, Warum es Grabmonumente nicht geben sollte. Eine Denkfigur der Moralität
Fulvio Delle Donne, Narrazioni sulla sepoltura di Federico II di Svevia
Manuela Gianandrea, Changes of Pace in the Narrative on “Medieval” Tombs in Rome (With a Note on the Lost Tomb of Pietro Capocci)
Claudia Bolgia, Leggere le fonti per rileggere le opere. Il monumento arnolfiano di Bonifacio VIII in San Pietro
Tiziana Franco, La tomba e il testamento di Barnaba da Morano, un giurista nella Verona fra Tre e Quattrocento
II. The Epitaphs and their Tradition
Cécile Treffort, Écrire en vers pour les morts. Autour des carmina funéraires carolingiens
Valerio Sanzotta, Da Mantova a Roma. Il Capitulum epythaphiorum di Ramo Ramedelli
III. Written and Material Reuse of the Funerary Past
Manuela Studer-Karlen, Mittelalterliche und neuzeitliche Grabinschriften auf frühchristlichen Sarkophagen
Carlo Ebanista, Il sepolcro di Tommaso del Giudice nella basilica di San Felice a Cimitile
Elisabetta Scirocco, Riscrivere sulla tomba. Il ruolo dell’epigrafia nel riuso sepolcrale a Napoli
IV. Epigraphical Practices of Writing on Tombs
Vincent Debiais, Verse Epitaphs and Funerary Narratives. A Complex Inscription from the Cathedral in Girona (14th century)
Pál Lővei, Verses and Fragments. Some Inscriptions on Medieval Funerary Monuments in Hungary
Grischa Vercamer, Säkulare Repräsentation von Herrschaft vs. ewiges Leben. Spätmittelalterliche Inschriften von Adelsgräbern in Mittel- und Norddeutschland
V. Customs about Death in Modern Europe
Vanessa Harding, Politics, Confession, and Monumental Inscriptions in Early Modern London
Ondřej Jakubec, Writings beyond Tombs. Textual Communication on Sepulchral Monuments in 16th and 17th Century Central Europe
Diego Carnevale, Announcing Death. Funeral Tickets in 17th and 18th Century France and England
Index of Names
Index of Places
Contributors