400 BuoniCattolici
ians recruited peasants from the countryside and transported them to town.
They filled up the empty space: in the house, during the processions, and at
church.^116 Major responsibility for mourning still fell on family and neigh-
bors. Mourners wailed, beat themselves with their hands, and poured out
copious tears.^117 At the most extravagant, relatives rent their garments and
threw off their mantles; women tore off their veils and let down their hair.^118
During the procession, mourners clung to the bier as it passed through the
streets. In the church, lamentations continued during the vigil and the Re-
quiem Mass; the overwrought threw themselves onto the body.^119 Although
others participated in the pianto, the burden of mourning fell on close blood
relatives: parents, siblings, children, grandchildren and, above all, widows.
No commune dared forbid immediate kin from raising the pianto.^120 Some
felt that wailing was contrary to the dignity of communal officials. Siena
forbade its officials togridare i morti,but only while they held office. Bereaved
officeholders appointed substitutes to wail in their stead.^121 Tradition ex-
cluded the clergy from the pianto. Better that clerics shed tearsquietlyduring
the services and processions. Even the most staid of legislators did not forbid
that. But some priests did forget themselves. After all, even Jesus wept for his
friend Lazarus.^122 After the burial came another opportunity for demonstra-
tions of grief, when the family returned home. The clerics, some perhaps
with relief, went back to the church to celebrate the Office of the Dead.^123
Women were the great mourners of the age. A devotional piece from the
later communal period,Il pianto della vergine Maria,beautifully captures their
special role in mobilizing sentiment at funerals.^124 This work presents the
Blessed Virgin Mary’s lament of her crucified son as a model for mourning.
On receiving her son’s body from the cross, Mary reversed the blessing of
Gabriel, ‘‘Benedicta tu in mulieribus’’ (Blessed are you among women), cry-
ing out: ‘‘Anzi son la piu`maledetta di tutte l’altre femmine!’’ (Rather, I am
the most cursed of all women!). She took Christ’s body into her arms and
addressed it directly, pouring out her desolation and abandonment. She
called on Jesus to look down from heaven and see the pain his death had
caused her. Mary choreographed the wailing of the other women, turning
them into a choir of mourners. The two other Marys and Salome prostrated
themselves on the ground, clung to the cross, and fell over Christ’s body.
The Virgin and Mary Magdalene (the theatrical mournerpar excellence) lifted
- As we known from Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 4. 91 , 1 : 247 , where the city forbids the practice.
- Described in Parma Stat.i(before 1255 ), pp. 321 – 22.
- Parma Stat.i(by 1255 ), p. 322 ; Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 4. 91 , 1 : 245 ; Modena Stat. ( 1327 ), 4. 172 – 74 ,
pp. 475 – 77. - Modena Stat. ( 1327 ), 4. 174 , pp. 477.
- E.g., Parma Stat.i(by 1255 ), p. 322 ; San Gimignano Stat. ( 1255 ), 2. 54 ,p. 713.
- Siena Stat.ii( 1296 ), 1. 115 – 16 , 1 : 113 – 14.
122 .Ordo Officiorum della cattedrale [volterrana], 228 (Volterrams 273, fol. 100 r). - Parma Stat.i(by 1255 ), p. 322.
- Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msGaddi 187 (earlyxivcent.), fols. 76 r– 84 r.