WorldWithoutEnd.Amen. 411
Bolognese chronicles. Girolamo de’ Borselli specifically mentioned the
deaths of Guillelmus Durandus (the ‘‘Speculator’’), Bassiano (the student of
Bulgaro and teacher of Azzo), and Tancredo, all famous canonists or civil-
ians.^200 For a handful of lawyers, early monumental inscriptions survive.^201
The most extraordinary funeral monuments at Bologna, however, are its
great pyramid tombs. Again, all were for lawyers. Medieval observers com-
mented on the splendor of the tombs for the glossator Accursio and the
civilian Odofredo behind the apse of the Franciscan church.^202 They hailed
the exquisite monuments of the notaries Egidio de’ Foscherari and Rolan-
dino de’ Passaggeri before the church of San Domenico (fig. 59 ).^203 A citizen
received special honor in death because he had brought special honor to the
city during life. There was always a bit of distaste (perhaps envy?) when
someone of lesser stature procured a marked tomb. The aristocrat Donna
Mabilia, wife of the Ferrarese tyrant Azzo d’Este, got a special monument
inside the Franciscan church there by making benefactions to the friars. Fra
Salimbene, who recorded her burial, was a bit defensive about it.^204 Burial
inside the church (without a monument) was for the chapel clergy; laypeople
were buried there only by special dispensation. Others went to rest in the
parish cemetery. There the pious dead lay in unmarked graves, undivided by
rank, privilege, or wealth. Such a common end seemed natural and fitting.^205
When the burial procession reached the cemetery, those accompanying
the family were supposed to leave, so that only the immediate family, or at
most a group of ten, would witness the deposition.^206 This counsel was proba-
bly honored only in the breach. The priest sprinkled the open grave with
holy water to expel any demons that had stayed on after attempting to de-
lude the deceased during life. Into the open grave, a cleric dumped the spent
cinders from the thurible, since ‘‘nothing lasts longer than cinders under-
ground.’’ Thus, even after the body wholly decayed, the grave would be
recognized should it ever be opened. At Siena, mourners placed aromatic
herbs in the grave to recall their use at Christ’s burial and, no doubt, to ward
- Girolamo de’ Borselli,Cronica Gestorum( 1178 ), 16 (Durandus); ( 1197 ), 17 (Bassiano); ( 1197 ), 17
(Tancredo). - Tancredo:Iscrizioni medievali bolognesi, 77 , no. 23 (San Pietro?xiiicent. original, nowxviiicent.
copy); Bassiano: ibid., 61 , no. 9 (San Pietro, 1197 ). Other lawyers with inscriptions are Bernardo Bottoni
of Parma, the compiler of the Gloss on the Compilatio Prima, ibid., 64 – 65 , no. 12 (xiiicent., of unknown
origin, now at San Pietro), and Giacomo of Casalbuttano of Cremona, a doctor of both laws, ibid.,
63 – 64 , no. 11 (San Pietro? 1332 ). On the cult of lawyers at Bologna, see Hughes, ‘‘Mourning Rites,’’
35 – 36. - Francesco Pipino,Chronicon, 3. 30 , col. 703. Unfortunately, the tombs seen today are nineteenth-
century reconstructions. On the tombs artistically considered, see Renzo Grandi,I monumenti dei dottori e
la scultura a Bologna ( 1267 – 1348 )(Bologna: Istituto per la Storia di Bologna, 1982 ). - Girolamo de’ Borselli,Cronica Gestorum( 1289 ), 33 , 35.
- Salimbene,Cronica( 1250 ), 546 , Baird trans., 378. On the canon law regulating burial inside the
church, see Marantonio Sguerzo,Evoluzione, 61 – 70. - Bologna Synod ( 1310 ), 497 ; on the ‘‘anonymity’’ of medieval cemeteries, see Arie`s,Western Atti-
tudes, 47 – 49. - Bologna Stat.ii( 1288 ), 4. 91 , 1 : 247 ; Siena Stat.ii( 1310 ), 5. 207 , 2 : 320.