Supra sepulchrum mortui fac memoria The funeral culture of the early modern period as told by the gravestones of Prague
2022
Abstract
The paper provides a short introduction to Prague's history of period 1500-1650 describing its political and multiconfessional situation, which consisted of the Catholics, the Utraquists, the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and the Unity of Brethren members. The paper raises the question if it is possible to find this religious situation and its eschatology projected onto grave monuments (tombstones, stone epitaphs).
Working with a pool of 118 of them, the paper examinates their visual (a form of the effigy: figure or coat of arms) and textual part (language, font, formula), concluding these memory media are not sources only for prosopography, but demonstrates also confession, Estate's affiliation, or family values of the deceased one.