394 BuoniCattolici
prayers for the dying. He asked to be dressed in full pontificals. At the end,
he kissed the image of Christ Crucified and wept hot tears. He then recited
the responsory ‘‘In Manus Tuas’’ from Compline, invoked the prayers of
Saint Sirus, and gave up his spirit.^70 Not only bishops and priests met their
Maker to the sound of chanted psalms. While Benvenuta Bonjani passed her
last hours, her brother, the Dominican Fra Corrado of Verona, and his
fellow friars circled her deathbed and chanted the commendation of the
dying from the Roman Ritual.^71
Adaptations allowed the illiterate and unmusical to participate. One four-
teenth-century Augustinian friar from Florence reduced his well-used sick-
call book to the sections that allowed participation by the unlettered: the
penitential psalms, a short litany of the saints, and a series of collects requir-
ing only the simple response ‘‘Amen.’’^72 The ex-minstrel Giovanni Buono
may have had a good voice, but his Latin was shaky. During the commenda-
tion of the dying, he sang along for the Credo in Unum Deum, which he
knew from church each Sunday. He also joined in for the Pater Noster, the
Ave Maria, and such as he knew of the psalms, in particular his beloved
‘‘Miserere Mei.’’ Finally, he professed his faithmore laico,that is, in his native
Italian.^73 Everywhere people commended the dying to the Blessed Virgin by
singing the Salve Regina, as they did at the death of Benvenuta Bojani.^74 A
crowd of clergy and laity attended the death of the holy beggar Gualtiero of
Lodi, singing chants, not those from the ritual of commendation, but those
everyone would know: the Gloria in Excelsis from Mass and the great
thanksgiving Te Deum Laudamus from Matins.^75 Judging from the music
chosen, there was little lugubrious about that deathbed. The church of Milan
was satisfied with a less musical send-off; the Ambrosian ritual prescribed
only that the priest recite three collects over the one dying.^76 We can only
guess at the emotional state of those present as they sang and prayed.
At the moment of death, or as soon as possible afterward, the cappella of
the deceased sounded the ‘‘death bell’’ to invoke the prayers of the commu-
nity. Those with means sent criers and family members through the city,
asking for prayers.^77 The clergy of Ferrara and Reggio, at least until it was
forbidden, dispatchednuntiito announce the deaths of clerics and beg pray-
ers.^78 At Reggio, the great bell of the duomo responded to the cappella bell,
- Bernardo Balbi,Vita [S. Lanfranci], 2. 31 ,p. 537.
- Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 11. 90 ,p. 174.
- The friar’s worn little book is Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana,msGaddi 214 (earlyxiv
cent.), fols. 1 r– 18 r; see also Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana,ms 1348, fols. 59 v– 60 v.
73 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 4. 2. 267 – 89 , pp. 838 – 45. - Corrado of Cividale,Vita Devotissimae Benevenutae, 12. 94 ,p. 175.
- Bongiovanni of Lodi,Vita Beati Gualterii Confessoris, 8 , pp. 22 – 24.
- Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana,msA 189 Inf., fols. 75 v– 76 r.
- See Reggio Stat. ( 1277 ), p. 45 , which forbade sending criers.
- Ferrara Clergy Const. ( 1278 ), cols. 434 – 35.