Festive Funerals in Early Modern Italy - 9781138548145

Taylor & Francis

Interdisciplinary in scope, this book constitutes the first overview of the development of early modern papal funeral apparati, the temporary decorations used during the funeral masses in St Peter\u2019s. Drawing from a range of unpublished sources, the author shows how the papal apparati functioned within the funerary liturgy and how the apparati compared to those of cardinals and princes on the stages of early modern Rome, Theatre of the World. > Celebrated at the heart of a notoriously unstable period, the Vacant See, papal funerals in early modern Rome easily fell prey to ceremonial chaos and disorder. Charged with maintaining decorum, papal Masters of Ceremonies supervised all aspects of the funeral, from the correct handling of the papal body to the construction of the funeral apparato: the temporary decorations used during the funeral masses in St Peter\u2019s. The visual and liturgical centre of this apparato was the chapelle ardente or castrum doloris: a baldachin-like st.